Curiosity 2
by Tenucci
Summary: Jack and Elizabeth's adventures as a married couple continue in this sequel of Curiosity. But marriage appears to be much more complicated thing than they had ever imagined. Troubles are also caused by mad jealousy, Royal Navy and two dark-haired sons...
1. Chapter 1

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci

Translation: Rosette (also known as Red)

Rating: PG 13

Summary: A lonely housewife

Curiosity II

1.

It was that moment before the sun started to rise from the sea. The darkness of the night was still everywhere, but now it had a touch of upcoming day and its brightness.

The Caribbean night was blacker than black, though in the daytime at the exotic seashore was like heaven on the earth with its palm trees, white sand and turquoise bays where colorful fishes swam in the middle of colorful corals.

Jamaica was the largest islands at the Caribbean Sea and Port Royal was the biggest town at the island.

The town was very important to the merchant vessels and because it was a centre of the Caribbean's civilized British nobility, it had become the center of the Caribbean Sea. Former hiding place of the pirates and the reputation as the world's sinful town had become now idyllic, civilized miniature of the kingdom, who was leaded by old Governor Swann.

The power of the Governor had begun deteriorate, because the man was old and easily leaded by others. Swann stayed still at the authority, because he hoped to do one thing before he would die. And it was to find her lost daughter and safe her future.

However, the girl had things quite well and she was closer than the Governor could have ever imagined.

xxx

A few miles away from Port Royal lied high rocks and from there was a long fall to the dark green sea. The crest of waves smashed again and again against the craggy rock and the birds had nests in the rock holes.

Small crabs scuttled on the sandy beach of the bay and circled around the rope of the old boat as they hunted micro-organisms to eat. The boat hadn't been used quite a long time and the paint had begun to peel off because of the sunshine and rainstorms. The boat was all alone at the waterline, like waiting that somebody would row it onto the waves and it could bump against ship's hull again.

There was a house built on the rocks, above the beach. It was beautiful, little house with chalked walls and thatched roof. There were two other houses near the main house; other one was the stable and the other was a shed. Little pathway lead to both across the bright green grass. Pretty fence skirted the garden and it protected inhabitants to fell down to the sea from the edge of the rocks.

xxx

It wasn't a coincidence that the house situated right at that kind of place. The bay was very deep and it was excellent place to anchor a larger ship without that anybody knew about it at the Port Royal.

The master of the house needed to come and go without anybody knowing about it.

When the couple who owned the house had bought the place soon after the birth of their firstborn, they had disagreed if the Jamaica was good place to live. The master happened to be a pirate and people didn't care about pirates at the Port Royal at all in these days. They prefered to hang pirates if they just caught them.

The mistress would wanted to be close to her father, who lived in the Port Royal's Governor's mansion and commanded the island of Jamaica with his last strength.

They compromised and bought the house a little farther from Port Royal and the man forbad his wife to reveal their identity to anyone and told her to make her business near, in a small village instead of the capital.

But then, when the life began to seem peaceful, everything changed.

The house became quiet; expect the child's cheerful laugh at the garden. Young, beautiful mistress was silent and lonely. Often she walked next to the fence at the time when sun was setting and let her delicate fingers to caress the rough wood. Brown eyes watched longing at the sea which shimmered in the colors of fire and the sky, but she never saw there what she missed. The ship which's hull and sails was black as the night itself.

Six years had passed and Elizabeth Sparrow, nee Swann, was 26 years old, the wife of the Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow and mother of two children. And loneliest human on the earth. At least she really felt like one.

"Where are you, Jack..?" Elizabeth whispered the question every night into the wind. Either aloud or without a sound. She didn't know if she was never going to get an answer to that question, but her heart didn't stop waiting for him.

xxx

Elizabeth sighed and rose up from the bed as the tiredness smarted her eyes and she walked to the wooden cradle which were opposite of her own bed. She took aside the blanket which was decorated with lace and took a screaming baby boy to her arms.

The young woman tried to hush and cradle the baby as she walked around the room. Nothing helped.

Elizabeth sat tiredly at the edge of the bed and positioned the boy on her thigh on his stomach as she swung the child and hummed old lullaby. The woman almost felt that she would cry anytime soon just because of tiredness.

"Calm down, my love..." Elizabeth hummed and quickly wiped the corner of her eye. "It's alright… Mom is here…"

_Why must I stand all of this alone?_ Elizabeth thought, but regretted her thought. She wouldn't have wanted to think her two little children as a burden, though they sometimes felt like it. But sometimes, in the moments of exhaustion and hopelessness, Elizabeth would have hoped that the father of the children would get up from the bed instead of her and reassure the boys.

xxx

After a moment, that felt like eternity, the little one's cry began to calm down. Elizabeth was relieved and wiped her eyes again as she held of the baby the whole time. The woman lifted carefully the three month's old boy up onto her thighs and looked at the small head covered with dark, fluffy hair and sleepy, tearful eyes which were as dark as the boy's father's eyes.

The three months old baby, who was called Ron Jacob Sparrow, smacked his lips and sniveled like he wondered if he should stop crying.

"Are you hungry, my son..?" Elizabeth asked quietly from the child and opened her nightdress smiling. She took the baby in her arm and offered another of her round breasts which was swollen because of the pregnancy.

Ron took the top his mother's breast into his mouth and began to suck with satisfied utter sounds. Small fists settled on the breast as they sometimes struck the air and grabbed of Elizabeth's long, light brown lock of hair.

Elizabeth smiled sadly and laughed tenderly at the baby, who enjoyed his meal with eyes closed. The children couldn't look more like Jack, the woman thought as she breastfed her baby. _I can see the same features now already. The most distinguishable feature is darker than dark eyes and dark brown hair._ And tricky, lively personality wasn't certainly the least feature inherited from Jack.

"Good boy, Ron, my little one. Now you got something in your tummy." Elizabeth talked tenderly to the child and smiled wearily as she put the baby back to his cradle. "Fortunately, you like milk and as for now you don't want rum…"

Elizabeth laughed as she thought about her husband's drinking habits and set the blanket back to cover the little body, waited for a moment that the child would fall asleep and then walked to the next room, where her elder son slept in his bed.

xxx

Elizabeth looked at the sleeping boy, who had just turned 6 years old. Under the light-colored blanket distinguished the head with dark hair as it rested on the pillow. The blanket moved up and down as it revealed that the little boy was in deep sleep.

The woman circled to the other side of the bed, because she wanted to see her elder son's face. Elizabeth almost stumbled on something and glanced at the floor. Wooden sword, that the child had gotten for his birthday present, rested at there where the child had thrown it after the day's games had ended.

Elizabeth remembered how she had searched the sword, that would look as real as possible, from the near village to give it to her son for a birthday present and at the same time her cheeks turned to red because of anger.

_Why Jack didn't come home at least on the boy's birthday?! Jack remembers quite well when the boy's big day is, when he was right there to witness our son's birth at the cabin of the Black Pearl. He said that he would always remember that day._

_I'm sure that he could have brought much more glorious gift from his journeys than a cheap wooden sword!_

Elizabeth snorted silently and caressed gently his older boy's Alexander Joaquin Sparrow's sleepy dazed hair. The boy moved as he slept and Elizabeth took her hand away, without wanting to wake up the child.

Elizabeth soon sneaked out from the room and closed the door behind her. There was still time before the morning would come and when she couldn't sleep anymore didn't meant that the children would have to wake up too.

Elizabeth walked as silently as she could to the house's small and dark kitchen and set fire on the candle at the table of the kitchen. Then she poured a glassful of red wine to herself and hoped that it would help her to fall asleep again.

xxx

Elizabeth silently listened the early morning. The sounds of the huge waves emanated from below at the beach. She kept the bedroom window ajar at night and she could hear the crickets and old door of the stable slamming in the wind every now and then.

The woman had set a fire on the candle at her bedside table and lied awake, leaning against the pillows and looking at the ceiling.

_Jack… Almost a year has passed_, Elizabeth thought and tried her hardest to prevent the tear to fall on her cheek. _A whole year from the moment when we last time saw each other! Eternity…_

_I don't even know if you are dead or alive. Can't you write to me? At least one letter, message or note... some sign… so I would know am I still your wife. So I would know do I have a husband anymore…_

Elizabeth couldn't help herself but she sobbed hopelessly. She knew that reminiscing of the past didn't help at all. Memories of the touches, laughter, happiness and love didn't make her feel better, but still she opened the drawer of her bedside table and took out the old, leather covered book.

The book, that hided the memories almost for six years. Her diary.


	2. Chapter 2

Author: Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translation: Rosette  
Rating: R  
Summary: Elizabeth reminisces the past as her and her children's life changes dramatically.

2.

Elizabeth stared at the book in dimly light. It felt a bit cold in her fingers and Elizabeth could feel the furrows which the time had made on the leather.

The woman loosed the string which tied the covers together and opened the book quite from the beginning. The pages were brittle and the corners were a bit ripped. The ink had become lighter in the first pages of the book.

Elizabeth reached out to pull the candle to the edge of the bedside table and raised the book closer to her face, so that she could see better.

And so she returned 6 years back in the past.

_2.8.1705_

The sea was specifically beautiful in this morning. I woke up early and went to the beach. This place is incredible! So beautiful… I wanted to wake up Jack and ask him to walk with me, but he was in deep sleep, so I didn't want to wake him. He always sleeps deeply, especially when the boy wakes up and begins to cry.

_We have lived here almost for a week and everything feels to settle down by itself. Our little Alex-darling is a healthy and lively baby. He turned three months old yesterday and small stomachaches are easing already. The boy can sleep more at nights. And Jack had been sober for over two weeks! But I don't see any difference in his behavior…_

_But I have nothing to complain about, because he is mine and despite all of his imperfectioness, he is the one I need. And I want. And I love. _

_I have recovered from the childbirth quite well, considering how close of death I and Alexander were. And Jack couldn't keep his hands away from me. He has waited more and less patiently that my wounds will heal and surrounded me all the time. I have waited myself too, but at least it doesn't hold true, that a man's desires disappear when a woman becomes a mother. Other night we made love for the first time after the childbirth. I was afraid that it would hurt, but it all was just wonderful._

xxx

Elizabeth stared at her small handwriting and felt tears in her eyes. Oh yes, she remembered that night. When she had said that she felt nervous about making love, Jack had made all of her fears unnecessary and coddled her, touched her like the frailest flower that will broke when the wind blows a bit harder.

Elizabeth wiped her eyes and flipped the pages forward.

_24.12.1709_

Now it's late Christmas night. Jack went outside for a smoke and I decided to write a few words before we go to bed.

_Alex fell asleep a long time ago and Jack and I talked for hours together and drank a few glasses of wine. I can tell everything to him, though he sometimes teases me. It just so wonderful to spend time together… I couldn't imagine needing anything else anymore. _

_Alex was excited because of his presents and I managed to make a quite tolerable meal with the help of our lovely maid Anna. They never taught me to cook in my father's house. Jack brought a bottle of excellent wine from the village and praised the sour cream pie that I made. I didn't care to tell him that I only made the frosting..._

_Our Christmas was very successful, though Jack didn't know anything about celebrating of it. I am happy that finally he has a family to spend the Christmas with. And I and Alex are very happy when he spends it with us. _

_Only one thing makes me wonder. Jack has begun to smoke more. He still doesn't drink very often, but the cigarettes had begun to disappear. I'm not worried, because maybe he replaces the rum with cigarettes. Jack has said many times that he doesn't want to drink in front of our son. But always my man has to have some vice. _

Elizabeth stopped for a moment to think about Jack's hands with their long fingers and knuckles which had scars of the tavern fights. The Captain had abandoned most of his rings (especially that, which Jack had gotten from the Spanish widow, Elizabeth had ordered to put away from her sight), but the skin between the right index finger and the middle finger had turned to yellowish because of smoking. Now afterwards, when she thought about it, she realized that Jack had smoked all the time before he had left. The woman felt pain in her chest. _Was it so hard to Jack to be at home..? _After that sad thing what had happened.

Elizabeth continued reading the page until the end.

_Last week, Gibbs sent a letter to my husband and told that they are coming to see us. The whole crew of the Black Pearl. Jack was overjoyed when he heard it and now he stares at the sea in the evenings like he would expect his ship to come anytime soon. I understand him. Half year has passed Gibbs came to see Jack. And Jack can't stand longer if he can't stand on the deck of his ship with the rum grog in his hand as the sea wind mixes his hair._

_I expect quite big party when the Pearl arrives. Well, I allow that to Jack with pleasure. He had been so exemplary father and husband, though sometimes I have hard time to understanding his silly ideas. There's nothing wrong with his mind… He's just my peculiar, funny pirate. _

xxx

Elizabeth settled the book onto her lap and stared in front of her as she wondered what was the reason why Jack couldn't be at the land with his family? Why was the man so distressed?

Elizabeth began to flip the pages forward, until she found the writing that she was searching for.

_2.2.1710_

I am so happy. Today, I went to see the midwife and she told me that I am pregnant. I thought that I couldn't be able to get more children, because Alexander's birth almost killed me. The midwife recommended me to be careful, because this child could miscarriage easier. But I am pregnant and I am very happy about it. 

_Jack and Alex have been outside for the whole day. Those two have enough strength to play from the sunrise to the late evening. I haven't told to my husband about the new baby, but I'm going to do it when those two come inside for dinner. _

_Jack was sailing with his former crew about a month ago and though I missed him the whole week, which he was gone, I was still satisfied because he returned so relaxed back home. Maybe he just wanted a little change for his life because now that small tension, which I noticed in him after the Christmas, is gone. _

Elizabeth flipped couple of pages forward.

_19.2.1710_

Jack was so happy when I told about the new baby and now he has taken care of me. Oh yes, he is sweet when he tries to help all the time and coddles me. But sometimes that could be irritating. I'm still a grown-up person, who can look for food in the kitchen by herself. But I guess that men are built that way, so they look after their woman too much when she is pregnant. And I guess that Jack fears that we lose the baby. But I have felt good and there's no reason for fear.

_Gibbs wrote again and asked Jack to come on some journey. Jack is going to say no, because I asked for him to stay at least the beginning of the pregnancy. Then, when the baby inside of me grows a little stronger, Jack can go to the sea. But I hope that he will come back soon, because I can't be separated from my dearest for a long time._

Elizabeth turned the page and felt that tears began to fall down on her cheek, because she remembered what she had wrote on the next page.

_21.2.1710_

I woke up in pain last night. It tore me like the beast tores the pray and I couldn't do anything else but lay there and cry. Jack woke up to my wailing and set fire to the lantern. I saw his terrified face and I looked at myself. I was covered with blood; our bed was covered with blood. 

_Our child is dead. _

_I feel empty and I don't have the energy to care about Jack's distress, though I clearly see how he grieves the loss. All my energy goes to Alex, I must take care of his needs and it keeps me sane. _

_I…_

The text was smeary and Elizabeth noticed the spots of tears on the paper. She remembered how much it had hurt her… and still hurt when she thought about the death of her child.

Elizabeth blinked tears out of her eyes and sighed bitterly. _I wish I would have cared more about Jack's sorrow_, Elizabeth thought and turned to look at the flame of the almost burned candle. It spread smoke and Elizabeth turned her gaze and looked somewhere far away.

_Maybe Jack wouldn't have left us if I had cared._

xxx

Two weeks after the miscarriage, the Black Pearl had arrived and taken Jack away. Elizabeth had been silent as her husband had left and though Jack had promised to come back soon, Elizabeth had felt that something had broken between them for eternity. Losing the child had brought dark shadows to their lives and those had been completely unfamiliar to them.

They hadn't discussed about the child's death in any way. Neither one didn't want to talk about it and so the sorrow and hatred had smoldered in their souls.

Maybe both of them should have had remembered that they lived in the real world, where the unpleasant things could happen at any time. But both had lived like dazed of the happiness, which they got when they finally got each other.

Eventually, the gray weekday had surprised and knocked out them and their visional happy life together.

xxx

Jack had been two months at the sea and finally returned. Meanwhile Elizabeth had changed to a skinny, suspicious and tense woman. She hadn't run into Jack's arms like she had used to do as Jack came home, but she had asked angrily why Jack had been away so long and began to accuse Jack of cheating. Jack hadn't even tried to explain, but he had thrown his effects at the bedroom floor and left outside with the doors slamming. The man had gone sulking to a shed with his half-empty rumbottle.

Elizabeth had stayed awake until the early morning, waiting for Jack and feeling guilty because of her mean words. At last, she had impatiently gotten up from her bed. She had walked with barefoot across the garden and peeked inside of the shed. Jack had lied on an old couch, in the middle of all junk and raised his glance to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth hadn't said anything, just walked in front of Jack. She hadn't looked angry anymore. Only yearning had reflected from her eyes. And she had looked beautiful with her ruffled hair as the outlines of her body had distinguished under her transparent nightdress.

Jack had pulled her on his lap as he had caressed her hips, wanting her. Elizabeth had bent down and kissed her husband so fiercely, letting her lips to tell about everything bad which hid inside of her. Right that moment, she hadn't needed romance or tenderness. She had wanted that Jack would make love to her; fuck all that pain, misery and longing out of her. And Jack had known it without she had to say any words.

They had spent the passionate night right there on the sofa, making love many times because both had felt over and over again that it wasn't enough.

When they had panted against each other, mixing their bodies sweat to each other, Jack had tried to say: "Elizabeth… I didn't mean to…" but Elizabeth had blocked his mouth with her own, sucking his tongue fiercely, pulling his dark dreadlocked hair as she had provoked him to new heated moment of sex. And Jack had completely forgotten what he had wanted to say.

They had continued until Jack couldn't have kept on anymore and they had been so exhausted that they had fallen asleep as they had held of each other.

xxx

After that everything had been better, had went better. They still hadn't talked about the death of the child, but the life had returned back to its own tracks.

Until Jack had gotten got a new letter from Tortuga. Gibbs needed Jack's help quickly, because somebody had tried to steal the Pearl many times already. Jack couldn't say no. He would come to Tortuga soon as possible. Elizabeth didn't dare to forbid Jack to go and so the man disappeared at the horizon for the last time.

xxx

Elizabeth opened the last page of the book and read the last note with eyes smarting of exhaustion and shedding of tears.

_15.8.1710_

It has passed three months since Jack left. I'm pregnant and this child will stay alive. I feel it. 

_Jack doesn't know anything about this child. I believe that it was conceived at the evening before he left like a touch of fate. I hope that he returns soon, so I can tell him. He will be so happy. _

_I'm afraid. We haven't been separated this long and I fear that something has happened. I often lie awake and I can't prevent horror images to crawl in my mind. I'm praying that my dearest is alright, wherever he is. I'm praying that he will return soon to me, Alex and to our unborn baby._

_I want that everything is alright again._

Elizabeth closed the book and blew the flame of the candle off. Unclear thoughts mixed in her mind and she stared at the brighter sky. A new morning again. Soon she would have to get up to take care of the children and make a breakfast. Soon Anna would come, the young maid from the village, to clean the house. Elizabeth would have to stand another day again.

A new day without Jack.

xxx

Elizabeth woke in the morning when the maid tried loudly to control the more louder Alexander, who would have wanted to go to the beach to build a raft, which the boy would sail to the Maracaibo and ransack the wealthy people.

Elizabeth sighed, kicked the blanket off her and got up.

The woman lifted Ron, who now babbled calmly, out of his cradle. Elizabeth smiled and talked to the baby as she opened again her nightdress and prepared to breastfeed Ron. She walked to the kitchen as she said: "Alex, my love, eat your breakfast before you go to plunder the rich people."

The boy grinned and then sat at the table as he waited for service. Elizabeth sighed, said good morning to Anna, who was short maid with brown hair. Then Elizabeth began to search fruit and bread.

xxx

When they had eaten the breakfast, Alexander ran outside. Elizabeth and Anna shouted after the boy, that he must stay at the garden and he wasn't allowed go to the rocks. The boy's face turned to grumpy and he settled to play with his sword in the garden.

Elizabeth sighed again to her wild boy's wild plays and picked breakfast dishes away, Ron in her another arm. The baby started to fall asleep in her mother's arm when he got his breakfast and finally he put the small fists under his chin and began to make utter sounds in his sleep.

Elizabeth smiled to the little one and pressed a gentle kiss on his head. She was going to take the baby back to his cradle, but suddenly Alexander ran inside and he was clearly excited.

"Mom! Mom!" The boy almost dashed against his mother's hems as he came suddenly from the kitchen door.

Elizabeth fixed Ron's position and looked astonishedly at her son as she asked: "Well, what's the matter, Alex?"

"There is a man in the garden!"

"What man?" Elizabeth asked amazedly. They never had visitors because they tried to hide from curious eyes. The maid Anna was the only outsider, who was allowed to visit in their house. And the girl remained silent when she got her money. And she was very fond to the peculiar family.

Alexander answered: "It looks like a really foolish bloke! It was dressed like some bloody fool!"

"Alexander Sparrow", Elizabeth rebuked and heard Jack in her son's voice. "Your manner of speaking is horrible once again!"

Alexander didn't care but he pulled her mother from her hems to outside.

xxx

Elizabeth met unpleasant surprise at the garden. The comer was red coated soldier of the King. The man, whose job was to hunt pirates and kill them. The musket, which was equipped with bayonet, glimmered on the man's shoulder and his boots had turned dirty in the road. The soldier stood at the garden and stared sharply at Elizabeth, who tried her best to hide her nervousness and tried to act normally.

"Good morning, sir", Elizabeth greeted as she forced a small smile on her face. She thought that it felt strange to call him as a "sir", when he should have bowed her, the only daughter of the Governor. But Elizabeth didn't want that the soldier would turn suspicious, so she pretended that she was just an ordinary housewife.

"Good morning", the man answered. "Feisty boy you have, madam."

Elizabeth smiled a mite confused and pulled Alexander, who glanced the man suspiciously, closer to her.

"Oh, I'm very sorry if he said something improper", Elizabeth said as apologetically as she could.

"Never mind", the man said. "I couldn't expect more than that…"  
"Beg pardon..?"  
"Yes, these kinds of scums act the way they act. I can clearly see that the boy resembles his father."

Elizabeth was terrified. _That man knows who I am and who my husband is! Now we are in grave danger..! _Elizabeth tried to stay calm, but she couldn't prevent her hands shaking.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked as she acted ignorant.

The soldier moved annoyedly and continued: "Once, you were the finest lady at the Jamaica, but now you crawl here in mud and give birth to little rats for that bastard."

Elizabeth was so upset, that tears of resentment rose to her eyes. For a moment, she was speechless, so vicious had been that redcoat's voice. Then she gathered her courage again and hissed angrily as her voice trembled: "How dare you speak that way about my children at the garden of my own house! Shame on you! My children haven't done anything bad to anyone! My youngest child is just three months old!"

"But they are going to do! Their blood ensures that they are going to be the same kind of bums like their father." The man took one threatening step forward. "That youngest should be killed to his swaddle before he starts to pilfer the innocent people."

The man took another step forward as his eyes lightened. Elizabeth took one step back. The soldier of the King continued his chanting: "And the oldest should be put in the proper school where wickedness will be whipped out of him. You can be sure that we will come and take them… sooner than you will ever guess!"

Elizabeth stared at the man horrified. She felt that a tear escaped down on her cheek.

"If you surrender willingly, maybe we will spare those brats' life", the soldier said and pointed with his finger to Elizabeth and the children. "But you… you Mrs. Sparrow, we will take and arrest you. We will hang you with other criminals. And before that, you will tell us where your dear husband is, so we can bring him too in front of the court. And for him, we have planned the worst possible judgment you could ever imagine."

The man stared at Elizabeth for a moment as he made sure that he was very serious. Then the soldier turned around and began to march away from the house.

xxx

Elizabeth stood at the garden stunned, as she looked after the red coated man. Her eyes were filled with tears, her hand squeezed Alexander's jacket and little Ron was close against the woman's chest.

"Mom…" Alexander said. Elizabeth woke from her thoughts and pulled herself together.

"Yes, darling?" Elizabeth blinked her eyes and looked down at her son.

"You are crying", the child said and looked at his mother with big, dark eyes.

Elizabeth sobbed once more and made a little smile on her face as she said: "Don't worry, my love. I'm fine."

"That man threatened us!" Alexander shouted and kicked stones to that direction, where the soldier had disappeared. "Are they going to kill us?"

Elizabeth felt that her heart almost broke when she heard those words. Her son's childhood had gotten a cruel end. Elizabeth fixed Ron's position in her arms and said as she tried to sound strong: "Oh God no, my love! No, they are not going to kill us, Alex. Don't even think about it! And don't worry at all. Mother will handle this."

At the same time Elizabeth wondered how she would handle this.

"Mom, why dad isn't here to handle this?" Alexander asked.

"Your father is on his journeys like you know", Elizabeth laughed unhappily.

"But why he isn't here to protect you and me and Ron? Though he don't need to protect me because I can do it myself!" Alexander raised his chin egotistically like Jack always did.

Elizabeth laughed and rumbled her son's hair. "Oh my brave, dear son. Your father would be here if he knew that were are in trouble."

Elizabeth felt heavy weight on her heart. _How can I know that Jack would come even if the soldiers are going to hang us? How can I know if he is still alive? And even if he is alive, does he want to save his family?_

Elizabeth didn't know anything about Jack and that gnawed her core with growing power.

xxx

At the next night when boys had fallen asleep, Elizabeth started to make some preparations. She had made a plan along the day. If it worked, that plan could save their lives and at the same time Elizabeth would get answers to her questions.

Elizabeth undressed and opened a cloth chest, that were in the corner of a bedroom and took from there the clothes which hadn't used awhile. She folded beautifully her dress and apron on the back rest of the chair and dressed instead of nightdress to dark trousers, a white loose linen shirt and a red vest.

There she stood in front of a mirror, in the clothing which she had used years ago when Jack and she had just met each other. In the pirate clothing.

Elizabeth thought: _If you have decided that you will condemn me of piracy, then so be it. I start to act like a pirate._

Clothes brought memories to Elizabeth's mind and she caressed her bodylines as she remembered how many times she had secretly fantasized that Jack would impatiently undress these clothes at the Captain's cabin. And then the fantasy had turned to reality.

_Oh, Jack… Where are you? I'm going to find you if you are still somewhere to be found…_

Elizabeth sighed and stopped dreaming. She glanced once again her figure and then she walked back to the chest. She pulled out long, reddish brown coat, a pair of boots which were made of flexible leather and leathern weapon belt with sheath. She put them onto the chair and then went to a small closet.

xxx

Elizabeth reached out of the highest shelf and seek out something with her hand. She touched many kinds of old things until finally a familiar, cold metal touched her hand and Elizabeth pulled her sword out.

She examined it in the candlelight and raised the sword into the air. The weight felt familiar and nice. Safely sturdy without being too heavy.

The blade was still sharp, but thick dust covered the sword even along the handle. Elizabeth closed the closet's door behind her and sat onto the bed to clean the sword with an old cloth, which Jack too had used to polish his weapons.

xxx

When the sword was ready in the sheath, Elizabeth began to pack two little bags. Another one she packed with her older son's clothes and accessories. And to the second, she put everything what she could need in caring of a little baby. Between clothes of the baby she put a small jewellery box and closed the bag carefully.

When the bags were packed, Elizabeth set them near the door and lay down on the bed. She didn't change her clothes to nightdress nor pulled the blanket on her.

She watched a ceiling and decided to rest before they would leave. Because they have to leave. When the soldiers of the King now knew their identity, it wasn't safe anymore to stay at the island. Nowhere was safe anymore. The rope tightened around their necks and Elizabeth felt herself helpless. She had to find safe place for the children. They had the full right to free life.

And in securing that could only help Elizabeth's husband.

xxx

Elizabeth woke up in the noise. She jumped up to sit on her bed and looked alarmed around her in the dark. She couldn't define the noise or what had caused it.

_How long have I slept..? It's still too dark…_

At the same time, Elizabeth heard crackle and silent popping above her. The woman turned to look at the ceiling, but she didn't see anything out of ordinary. The noise turned louder and at that very moment, Elizabeth realized that she had heard that noise many times before. And Elizabeth understood immediately what it was.

_Fire! Something burns above me on the roof!_

_They have come to get us and they are going to smoke us out of our own house! They are going to burn us alive if we won't surrender willingly!_

Elizabeth jumped out of the bed and ran next to the chair. She put the weapon belt on her shoulder and turned the sheath with shaking hands against her ribs. Her heart beat fast because of fear, the blood hummed in her ears and the breathing fastened. The smell of smoke floated into Elizabeth's nose.

The roof began to burn and Elizabeth felt the warmth emanating of the burning straws against her head. She grabbed of her boots and pulled them quickly onto her feet. Elizabeth almost lost her balance as she heard herself to swear and finally she got the boot on her foot.

Elizabeth panted because of fear and heat as she picked Ron up from his cradle and pulled hastily the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her child.

Elizabeth glanced up as the sweat streamed down her face and saw burning straws to drop on the bed. Instantly, the blanket of the bed flamed and the fire started to eat greedily the dark wood and bed sheets of the old double bed.

Elizabeth felt choking, half because of the smoke and half because of the pain of losing. She pressed Ron firmly against her chest. The child began to snivel dissatisfiedly when he sensed his mother's fear and when he felt the abnormal temperature.

Elizabeth cradled her son in her arms with machinery movement and hurried to the bedroom door. She wrenched two bags with her with her free hand and opened the door to the dark corridor, which illuminated the orange red, irritable heat.

Elizabeth stepped quickly to the corridor and at the same time, the roof collapsed down behind her and swallowed the whole room into the one enormous, burning fire.


	3. Chapter 3

Author: Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translate: Rosette  
Rating: R / NC 17

Summary: Elizabeth and her sons' journey far from home begins…

3.

Elizabeth coughed and stumbled towards Alexander's room. She heard banging and crackle from above when the roof began to turn into ashes as the fire burnt it. The heat was already intolerable and Elizabeth gasped as she fought her way through the smoke and fierce heat waves.

Little Ron cried helplessly inside of the blanket, but Elizabeth hadn't time to calm down the child. They must get out and quickly!

Elizabeth wrenched her older son's door open and shouted: "Alexander!"

She heard the answer: "Mom! What's happening!?"

Elizabeth stepped into the dark room. The fire hasn't reached Alexander's room yet. The woman slammed the door behind her and turned to look at her son.

Alexander had already got up from his bed and right now he was dressing on his clothes. He glanced at Elizabeth and was completely puzzled. The boy stared at his mother and her clothes with wide eyes.

"Why did you dress like dad?" Alexander asked and got his shirt on. At the same time, they heard crashing somewhere from afar, behind the noises of the fire. The noise sounded to come from the front door. Elizabeth felt cold fear to raise her skin into goosebumbs.

_They are coming inside!_

"There's no time for questions", Elizabeth said quickly and rushed to lock the door of Alexander's room. The doorknob felt hot, the corridor was apparently on fire. The woman breathed fearfully and commanded her son: "Put your trousers and shoes on, quickly!"

"But..." Alexander began as he stared his toys on the floor. The boy seemed to wonder should he abandon them.

"I said: no questions!" Elizabeth snarled as she woke the boy from his thoughts. "Do as I said. You will take your brother and you will run to the forest behind the house."

xxx

Alexander had dressed in few seconds and he held his brother in his arms. He looked at his mother with big eyes when the woman opened his bedroom window and peeked carefully outside.

Elizabeth didn't see anyone. All the soldiers were breaking the door at the front garden. The thick oak door wouldn't give up easily when Elizabeth had strengthened it with the kitchen table before she had gone to sleep.

The woman helped her son out of window and said: "Run to the forest and hide, Alex." Elizabeth felt tears streaming down her throat when she saw the little 6-year-old standing there on the night dewed grass, with shaking legs and eyes wide because of fear. "Run, hold tight of Ron and don't look back. I will come later. Stay in your hiding place until I will come. Do you understand?"

"Mom… I…" Alexander's lower lip started to tremble and the boy seemed very disoriented. Small hands tightened the hold around the brother.

"Don't look back, Alex." Elizabeth repeated determinedly as she looked at her son's eyes. "You are a brave boy, I trust in you. Now go!"

Alexander hesitated for a second and then started to run as he hiccupped because of fear. He saw the jungle against the dark blue night sky and felt that the night dew moistened his soft moccasins. Without caring about that, Alex ran towards the forest as he didn't look back. He didn't turn even when he heard his mother screaming behind him. He continued his journey with half-blind eyes because of crying, until he sneaked between the trees and bushes, hide from the too curious, too dangerous eyes.

xxx

The attack had completely surprised Elizabeth.

The door slammed open behind her and somebody grabbed of her throat with brutal hold. Elizabeth tried to rip the strong hands, covered with dirt and soot, out of her throat and at the same time, somebody knocked her down.

Elizabeth's cheek hit against hard wood of the floor as she fell down on her stomach and she felt the blood on her face. At that very moment, somebody kicked her onto her back with the boot.

Elizabeth groaned silently and looked up between tears of pain and she saw a familiar face. The man, who had attacked on her, was the same man who had threatened her family in the early morning.

"It's nice to meet you again, Mrs. Sparrow", the young man said with a sarcastic smile and bent down next to Elizabeth. The man stank of smoke as he had fought his way to inside of the house. "I must say that you looked much better in the morning than you look right now."

Elizabeth coughed and felt the blood trickling along her face. The woman turned slightly her head, so that the blood wouldn't flow to her ear. Her face and throat ached and she blinked her eyes to prevent herself losing her consciousness. But at the same time, she tried to think how she could survive from this and remembered the sword that still was safely in the sheath against her hip.

The soldier bent over her and whispered theatrically: "There's no hope for you!" The man laughed exaggeratedly viciously and then said: "First we kill sons of a bitch and then we kill the bitch." The man laughed and grabbed of Elizabeth's chin. The woman turned her head with furious look in her eyes. The man breathed onto Elizabeth's face and caressed her chin with his damp and dirty fingers as he said: "Now we can see what kind of whore that Sparrow had fallen in love with. It's a shame that we burnt your bedroom, because you're going to have a long night, little wife. But you can lay on the hay of the stable when we test you." The man laughed again, visibly pleased of his own ingeniousness and bent down to kiss Elizabeth.

But Elizabeth didn't have the littlest intention to let that disgusting, read coated man to press his dirty mouth on hers, nor let willingly King's soldiers use her as a pleasure and at the incautious moment when the man bent closer and closer, she grabbed the handle of her sword, pulled the weapon out of the sheath with one, sharp wrench and slashed with all her might towards the man as she shouted: "Here's some test for you, bastard!"

The man shrieked with amazed look on his face, stumbled few steps backwards and then fell lethargically on the floor.

Elizabeth jumped up immediately and stared at the dead. She had slashed half of the man's face and then hit onto his neck. It had happened so easily. Though she hadn't swordfighted or killed any enemy for years, still it had been so easy. And maybe Jack truly had been right when he had said that Elizabeth was a real pirate, because the woman couldn't feel any commiseration for that man, who had threatened her and her beloveds.

Jack had said that Elizabeth was a pirate, in whose chest beat a heart of a sensitive and loving woman.

Elizabeth's thoughts were interrupted when she heard other soldiers' voices from the inside of the house and she heard the fire, which ate the house piece by piece. Shouting, crackling, slamming and laughter. The noises were horrible and Elizabeth pushed quickly her sword back to its sheath. She wiped the blood out of her face. Then she wrenched the bags from the floor to her hands and climbed out of the window to the night, which the flames were illuminating.

xxx

Elizabeth had fetched their only horse from the stable. It was a dark brown mare and Elizabeth had fed and saddled it ready in the evening. Now it stepped forward with calm pace, mistress on her back.

Elizabeth stopped the horse and it neighed as it moved her massive head up and down. Elizabeth patted the muscular neck and talked tender words to calm down the animal, which was scared of the fire.

The jungle was quiet, except noises of animals' movement. Birds didn't sing, they slept in trees and in their nests. The fragrance of the brugmansias floated in the dim night and for a moment, Elizabeth took a deep breath and raised her gaze to the top of the palm trees and she saw the stars of the night sky. Bright, tiny spots twinkled, disappeared and came in sight when the mild wind swayed leaves of the jungle. Young woman sent a quiet pray to all Gods, so that they would protect her children and herself. And Jack.

As Elizabeth had sighed deeply, she called half-aloud: "Alex, it's me… Come out."

First nothing happened and then she heard a rustle in near bushes. Soon a small boy came out with tremulous steps. Elizabeth sighed relieved and wiped again the blood off her face as she tried not to scare her son.

Alexander was covered with leaves and bark and Ron slept in his brother's arms. Elizabeth smiled gently to her children and at the same time wondered how Ron could be so calm. But the boy had always been like that. Very easy child, who doesn't cry all the time. Unlike Alexander, who had been quite demanding since he was a baby.

For once, Alexander was quiet and did as her mother told. The incident of the night had affected on the child and he seemed very tired and thoughtful. Elizabeth was worried, but still she knew in her mind that Alexander was tough enough and open-minded child, so that all of this wouldn't leave marks on the boy.

The woman helped boys on the horse and then they rode through the jungle as they glanced nervously behind them. Apparently no one had noticed which way they had left from the house.

xxx

As they had ridden a moment through the jungle and moist grass, Elizabeth stopped the horse in front of a lonely house. It was still very early, the sun hadn't risen yet and the withdrawing darkness of the night surrounded them. Alexander held Ron firmly against his small chest and glanced suspiciously at the small cottage with white walls.

Elizabeth dropped down off the horse and grabbed of the bridles to tie the animal to the tree, what grew in the garden. She told Alexander to wait at the garden with Ron and stay on the back of the horse, just in case. At last, Alexander tried to protest, but he was willing to stay with his brother in the shadow of the old cypress.

Elizabeth glanced at her children once more and thought distantly that Ron must get food soon. The small boy couldn't be hours without food. But first, Elizabeth had to take care of other things.

xxx

She went to the cottage's door and knocked few times. For a moment it was completely silent. She didn't hear even a sound from the house. Only wind in the cypress tree and on the hill behind the house broke the silence.

Soon she heard walking behind the door and then an old man opened the door carefully and glanced furtively the comer under his gray eyebrows. The man was definitely almost seventy years old and he had cataract in another eye.

"Good morning, master", Elizabeth greeted friendly and curtseying slightly because of an old habit. "I am very sorry that I'm disturbing you so early, but is Anna at home?"

"Yes", the man answered slowly and rubbed his white beard with his hand, which was covered with varicose veins. "She is still sleeping." The man looked surprised and clearly wondered what that woman did outside at this time and even in the men's clothes, bruises on her face.

"Could you wake her up?" Elizabeth asked patiently and didn't let the man's staring to bother her. "I am her employer and I have an urgent task to her." The man stared at her suspiciously, so Elizabeth added quickly: "And of course I will pay to her."

xxx

After a moment, Elizabeth's maid appeared to the door, wearing worn-out nightdress, messy brown hair around her thin face. Anna was 17 years old, shy girl, but very proficient in her work. Elizabeth knew that the girl loved her children… and that she was trustworthy.

"Good morning, Anna", Elizabeth greeted. "I'm sorry that I woke you."

"Never mind, madam. Good morning, madam", Anna answered without gasping for air and then glanced past Elizabeth to the children who waited on the horse, then Elizabeth's reddened, wounded cheek. "Did… Did something happen?"

"We are in danger!" Elizabeth shouted and grabbed of the girl's hand. "They chased us out of our house, Anna! They tried to arrest us…"

Elizabeth felt cold as she thought what would have happened if she hadn't been alert and awake.

Anna was horrified and sputtered: "Oh, that's terrible! Thank God, you are alright…" The girl grabbed with her both hands of her mistress hand and asked: "What are you going to do now, madam?"

Elizabeth sighed and felt that all incidents of the night gave shivers to her. She suddenly realized how close of the death, and God knows what else, she and her little children had went and she felt panic to crawl in her mind. Determinedly she defied it and said to Anna: "We must leave Jamaica, they find us if we stay here."

For a moment, the women stared at each other and both felt undefined nostalgia squeezing their chest and raising a lump in their throats.

"I'm going to ask a huge favor from you… I don't know what else I could do…" Elizabeth looked desperately at the young girl.

Anna rushed to say: "I will do anything what you want… You have been so good to me. Because of you, I can live in my home with my father, now when we have enough money to pay the rent. You gave a job to me when nobody else didn't accept me, because they thought that my father is mad. You saved us and I will do the same if I can…"

Elizabeth smiled with tears in her eyes and told about her plan.


	4. Chapter 4

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R / NC 17  
Summary: Elizabeth manages to travel quite easily to her destination, but what waits for her there, doesn't make her feel happy at all…

4.

Elizabeth rode alone towards the town center. She was able to ride fast now when her children with their items weren't onboard anymore and so she hastened her horse to the faster gallop, because she had to be at her destination before the sun would rise.

The lanterns of the town were dark, as were lights of the people's homes. It was morning's earliest hour. It was completely quiet; nobody did move at the outside though it was almost bright. The marketplace's clock made a low sound when half hour passed and the birds, which had nests in the belfry, flew over the quiet marketplace.

The hoofs of the Elizabeth's horse made a quiet noise against the cobblestoned street, when the woman rode upwards of the lonely road. The houses stood both sides of Elizabeth and for a moment Elizabeth felt anxiety, almost like claustrophobia. She looked up and saw windowsills and balconies. Between the houses somebody had put a clothesline and there dried few clothes.

Elizabeth let her gaze to fall down as she focused to look forward and tried not to imagine thousands of unknown faces with burning eyes, peeking at her in the dark windows, ready to do something bad to her.

Instead, Elizabeth thought about her meeting with Anna.

Elizabeth had left Alexander and Ron to Anna. She had done it with heavy heart, but she knew that it would be too dangerous to travel with the children. And there, where Elizabeth was going to go, would be too dangerous to take little children.

Elizabeth had given to Anna the bags, where was the boys' items and clothes. And between Ron's clothes, she had taken a jewelry box. There had been all the jewelry that Elizabeth owned. They were mainly presents from Jack, golden trinkets with the jewels. Beautiful and brilliant earrings, necklaces and rings. It had begrudged Elizabeth, when she had to give them away, but she didn't have enough money. So, if Anna needed to, she could change them into money and she could keep everything which would be extra.

Elizabeth had put everything into the box, expect the ring on her left hand. And though the ring was financially the most valuable jewelry, she wasn't ready to give it away before she would know for sure that the marriage between her and Jack would be over. And if Jack was dead, Elizabeth would carry the wedding ring until the death as a memory of the love of her life like the faithful widow should do.

Elizabeth glanced at her ring as she rode forward. It was golden, quite wide and it was decorated with eastern engravings and big, sleek ruby. Jack had bought it almost 7 years ago from Singapore, where they had sailed from Port Royal as Elizabeth had ran away from her own wedding.

There, at the beautiful Asian town, Jack had asked Elizabeth to be his wife and Elizabeth had said "yes" without hesitating for a second. Anything else hadn't even seemed like option. Elizabeth had been pregnant and she had been completely in love with her pirate.

They had spent few unbelievable days in Singapore's little shops and bathhouses. Just two of them had lived in tavern as they had drunken expensive wine, eaten the most magnificent food. And they had danced in the moonlight and made love everywhere.

And when they had returned to home at the Caribbean, they had married each other in short and simple, but very beautiful and intimate ceremony.

As the time had passed, the gold didn't glitter so shiny anymore, because everything that Elizabeth had done with her hands had tarnished the ring. But it still was beautiful and for Elizabeth it symbolized the love between her and Jack. Though Jack had been so far away, Elizabeth could have kept her husband close as she kept the ring on her finger. That way Elizabeth had always thought until Jack had left permanently. Now she didn't know if the ring mattered at all anymore.

xxx

Elizabeth tried to shake the unpleasant and scary thoughts out of her mind and focused to that plan, which she had started with Anna.

Elizabeth had told Anna about a ship, that would sail from Port Royal to Bahama Islands at morning. Anna must get to that ship with a wrong name as she would tell that the boys were her own. She would have to say that her destination was Nassau, but when the ship would visit at the small island of Racoon Cay, she must sneak out from the ship with the boys as unnoticeable as possible. After that, they would have to buy a room from a tavern with their assumed names and wait, hide there until Elizabeth and possibly Jack would come.

Elizabeth hoped that Anna wouldn't have any troubles along the journey. The most important thing for Elizabeth was that her sons would be in a safe place. Her main goal was that her children would be allowed to life normal life in a place where nobody would come to threaten them in the middle of their plays and they would have the freedom to decide about their lives, without the piracy of their parents would be obstacle to any kind of intention, what they would invent.

xxx

Elizabeth rode to a magnificent house on the hill. The huge mansion, which was painted by color of cream, reflected the morning's first delicate light. Verdant bushes and trees bloomed as gorgeously as the roses and dahlias in the flowerbeds. The vine of ivy grew along the wall of the house and it was wrapped around the railing of the balcony.

The residency of Governor Weatherby Swann was surely the most gorgeous house at Port Royal. And so it should be.

Elizabeth admired her childhood house and she remembered all those plays on the green grass and the reading moments in father's library. Very often Elizabeth had sat in the dimly lighted library, in the light circle of candles and read about sailing and pirates. The woman laughed to her unending interest of the subject and then rode with peaceful pace to the shadowed side of the house.

She dropped down from the horse, patted the animal because of its loyalty and she then tied her horse in the palm tree, which grew in the garden. Elizabeth looked at her horse for awhile and it stared back to her, like it had understood completely how difficult the woman's situation was. Elizabeth smiled tenderly to the animal and then walked with careful steps to the backyard.

Elizabeth looked up at the wall covered with vines. She still recognized the windows of his father's room and the balcony which was decorated with marble.

The balcony was several feet high, but Elizabeth couldn't stop thinking about her little trick, when she had scared her father and maids as she had climbed to the balcony along the vine in late night.

With the heart beating fearfully, Elizabeth took a hold of the wine and tried to forget the fact that she was a grown-up woman now and much heavier than at the age of ten. She also tried to forget that now it all was about life and death as she started to climb up.

xxx

Elizabeth managed to get onto the balcony. She lifted her foot over the rail and soon the dark boots thumped against the floor. She took a moment to listen the silence. She looked at the windows of her father's bedroom and at the same time, she noticed that the balcony door was open. Elizabeth saw heavy velvet curtains which swayed a bit in the wind, but the room behind them was dark.

_Father is quite old now_, Elizabeth thought. _Maybe he doesn't even remember me. Or recognize me. And if he gets so scared that he will call for help..? Or maybe he is so angry to me that he doesn't want to help me… _

Elizabeth knew that she couldn't turn away anymore and so she sneaked into the dark room.

xxx

Elizabeth's eyes soon used to the dark when she stood at her father's bedroom door and glanced around her. Nothing had changed. Furnitures, paintings and houseplants. All were wrapped in the soft darkness of the morning and just the ticking of the old clock broke the silence.

Elizabeth turned her attention to the bed that was in back of the room. The curtains of the bed were the same color as curtains at windows and the expensive silk sheets, which had brought from London, smelt lavender and rosewater. In the middle of them slept an old man, who had thrown his wig on the table next to bed, waiting for the servant to powder it at morning.

_Father_, Elizabeth thought and tender warmth spread to her chest. _Dear father, I have missed you so much. _

Elizabeth walked next to the bed and without hesitates, she carefully poked her father on his shoulder. The Governor cringed awake. The gaze of the old man wandered around and then it stopped to the dark character next to his bed. The man shouted frightenedly and withdrew back on his bed.

"Father, please don't shout," Elizabeth whished. "It's me… Elizabeth."

The Governor fumbled the lantern on his bedside table and turned it on uneasily. Dim light illuminated the bedroom and the father and his daughter stared at each other. Elizabeth took off her tricorne hat and right on that moment her father recognized her.

"E… Elizabeth..?" Governor Swann's voice was hoarse after the sleep and shock. "Is that really you..?"

Elizabeth smiled gently and whispered: "Yes, father… It is me. Long time, no see."

Happy smile appeared slowly to the old face of Governor. He fixed his position on the bed and reached his old, wrinkly hand towards Elizabeth. The daughter grabbed of her father's hand and sat on the edge of the bed as she smiled with tears in her eyes. The Governor touched Elizabeth's wounded cheek with astonished look on his face.

"Elizabeth… I thought for a moment that you were a ghost. I have wondered if you are dead…", Governor said with a touching voice. "I have been very worried about you in all of these 7 years. Where have you been? What has happened to you? Why did you leave from your wedding that way..?" The Governor almost stumbled on his words and then fell silent. He didn't let go of his daughter's hand.

"Father...", Elizabeth began and let her gaze fall to the white sheet of the bed, like a little child, who had just done something bad. "The reason why I came here today…" Elizabeth didn't know what to say and so she simply whispered: "I need your help." Elizabeth was quiet for a moment and then added: "I'm in danger. The soldiers of the King chased me away from my home… They tried to kill me."

"What!?" The Governor shouted. "Was it you?! The soldiers told that they had found somebody who will help them to caught one dangerous criminal. They talked something about a whore of an infamous pirate." The Governor fell silent in shock and Elizabeth snorted angrily.

"My God..." Governor Swann gasped as he glanced around the room. "I ordered them to catch you. I had no idea that it was you… My little Elizabeth."

"Your men seemed to know who I am", Elizabeth said angrily.

"What? Why haven't they told me..?" Governor Swann wondered, but he realized the answer by himself.

"I suppose because they knew that you wouldn't allow them to catch your daughter", Elizabeth said more angrily. "Though I was a whore of the pirate."

"But what is this talk about pirates?" Governor wondered. "What business you would have with them anymore? I'll let to hang those men who talked about you that way!"

Elizabeth sighed wearily. _Why do they call me a whore though I haven't even slept with more than a one man and that man is my husband? Aren't the pirates same kind of people, who can love? Why everybody sees something dirty in my and Jack's love just because we have involved with piracy?_

Elizabeth was fed up to narrow-minded people and when they judged her children because of Jack's occupation. _Why I just couldn't become interested of somebody ordinary man?_ But she knew that after Jack couldn't be anyone else.

"Father", Elizabeth said emphatically. "I am not a whore, but I have involved with pirates, I can't deny that."

"But…" The Governor tried to protest.

"I am a pirate myself", Elizabeth interrupted and felt tiny beating of pride inside of her. "I am one of them. You can't change that fact. But I am not a whore. I am a wife and a mother."

xxx

The Governor stared suspiciously to his daughter and then said uneasily: "Are you married, Elizabeth?"

"Yes I am", Elizabeth sneered and showed Jack's ring to her father. "I have been married for over 6 years."

"You are married?" Governor repeated and stared at the red stone, which glittered in the morning's first sunlight.

Elizabeth laughed because her father looked so stunned. The woman raised her hand and caressed her father's old, wrinkly cheek.

"Poor father," Elizabeth laughed sadly. "Of course you would have wanted to be in my wedding. I'm sorry that you couldn't be there…"

"But…" The Governor really tried to understand what he had just heard. "But you were going to marry Will! How..? Don't say that you left him because of another man?! Will never explained it to me… I wonder if he knew about it either…"

Elizabeth sighed and let her gaze fall again. Old thing that hadn't bothered her in years stung her once again. Guilt. She had deceived a man, who had loved her more than anything else in the world. Will had loved her then and she had hurt the young man by falling in love with Jack. But Elizabeth couldn't have done anything else but listen her heart. She couldn't regret that because she knew that she had done the right choice.

"Yes, father." Elizabeth said. "I left then because I didn't love Will anymore. It wouldn't have been right to marry him."

"Then who you love?"

Elizabeth was silent for awhile. She wasn't scared of what father would think about it, but she wondered if he would help her when he would hear who her husband was. Then she said: "In this point pirates came in. You have met him once." Elizabeth smiled a bit. "And you didn't get along with the best possible way."

"I'm sure that we didn't if he is a pirate!" Governor stated. "I haven't met personally many pirates in my life, so I can guess already who you are talking about."

"Yes, father. I am talking about Jack. Jack Sparrow."

"And you have children too?" Governor asked and Elizabeth saw that the man wasn't pleased to his daughter's final choice of man, but he really tried to accept it. The woman tried to hide her amused smile.

"Yes, two sons." Elizabeth answered calmly. "Alexander Joaquin is 6 years old and Ron Jacob is just 3 months."

"Two sons, you say…"

"Yes, dear father… Your grandchildren."

xxx

Elizabeth had sat a long time on the edge of her father's bed and told about her life with Jack and children. She had spoken up for Jack and refused to hear father's inveigh against Jack. But she hadn't dared to tell that Jack hadn't been at home for over a year. That definitely would have made make her father mad.

But after all, the old Governor didn't have anything bad to say about Jack. The man had been so happy because his daughter was alive and healthy and he had just said: _"Well, if that man treats you right and makes you happy then I have nothing against him, though he is that kind of… pirate."_

Elizabeth had hugged her father thankfully because Governor's approval still meant a lot to her, after all these years.

Elizabeth had told trustfully about her intentions sail to Tortuga to find Jack and then had asked carefully money from her father. She had given all her money to Anna and the boys. Governor Swann had taken heavy coin bag from the bedside table and handed it to his daughter happily because at last he could help his only child, who had been missing for a long time. Money didn't mean nothing to the old man, only thing that mattered was Elizabeth's happiness.

Elizabeth had left with relief, but wistful feelings and she had been quite sure that she would never see her father again. But she was wrong. This wasn't the last time when she would leave indebtedness to the old Governor Swann.

xxx

Elizabeth arrived later in noon to the lively harbor of Port Royal, where among many other ships left a two-mast merchant vessel with white sails towards Haiti. Elizabeth was thankful that the ship wasn't full of slaves because she would never want to sail in that kind of ship.

She had befouled her face and hands in a gloomy tavern as she had also tied her long hair under hat and tied her chest tightly with a piece of fabric. She rehearsed a few times to lower her voice and then left her horse to the master of the tavern, who was absolutely sure that the owner of the horse had earlier been a woman.

Elizabeth walked casually to the dock and joined the crew of the merchant vessel as she pretended that she was a man. She spoke when spoken to and she kept her head down. This way she had done before ,years ago, when she had sailed from Port Royal. Destination was the same this time too: the island of Tortuga, near Haiti. From Port-de-Paix would be easy to go to Tortuga, there was just less than 10 nautical miles between the islands.

In the early evening a ship called Purple Dawn weighed the anchor and began the journey towards Haiti.

xxx

Later Elizabeth stood on the deck as she looked towards Jamaica, which would disappear soon behind the horizon. The woman knew that she could never live peacefully on that island, which she had thought as her home with her hometown London. Now she was an outlaw, who needed to find a safe place to hide. The thought made her feel cold and she hated it, but she knew that she didn't have any choices.

In a few days Purple Dawn would arrive to Haiti and there Elizabeth would continue to Tortuga, where she hoped to find Jack because the town was home of the Pirate Captain and the Black Pearl. That was the place to start the search…

And if Elizabeth finds Jack, she would have a few things to say to her husband. The woman squeezed her hands into fists as she stared at the sea that bathed in sunlight. At that moment, she felt frustration caused by fury and injustice. If Jack was alive and healthy, he would have to explain quite a lot because Elizabeth wanted to hear a reason why she hadn't had her husband next to her in the past year.

xxx

Three days later Elizabeth walked to the shore along a ramp in a small harbor of Port-de-Paix. Elizabeth didn't have time to look at the island around her, because she saw Tortuga at the horizon. It was so close! And it attracted Elizabeth like a magnet attracts metal.

_Next to there_, Elizabeth thought. _I don't have a time to lose. I need to find that damn pirate if I want to escape from this trouble…_

Elizabeth had gotten plenty of money from her father, so she bought easily a lift to the island. Small fishing boat that kept traps water in near Tortuga, agreed to take her to the island and so Elizabeth walked into a little sloop to make her final journey.

xxx

Later on that evening, Elizabeth looked under her tricorne hat with frown to the approaching town of Tortuga. She didn't talk with fishers, just stared the whole time to her destination. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts and the fishers let her be alone when she had paid the payment for the trip.

Elizabeth could hear noise and shooting from the cheerful and sinful pirate dock. Smoke flew in the air when somebody shot from his pistol at the dock and after that Elizabeth heard drunken laugh. She heard whores screaming and noise of a wild fight.

And when the ship sailed closer, Elizabeth looked around the ragged docks, which barely stood still and shook under weight of sleeping or dead drunks. Filthy water rinsed the docks and broken lanterns' orange light illuminated the small dock hut that had been deserted a long time ago. Those, who needed to come to this town, didn't need help to avoid the reefs. And if they hit the reef, then they would swim rest the journey and go warm up into a first tavern with bottle of rum. Besides, the pilot had died a long time ago and nobody was sober enough or sane enough to continue his job.

The ships were mainly poor sight. Torn sails, broken masts and carbonized hulls with holes everywhere. There were few ships of successful pirates.

And one of them made Elizabeth's heart beat faster.

The Black Pearl, fastest ship in the Caribbean, had anchored in largest dock of the harbor. It was in good shape and whole. Black sails had been folded and tied neatly and the hull had been fixed. Magnificent three-mast ship was in center of admiration of the other ships.

Elizabeth felt that her heart beat extra beating when she looked at the ship. _Jack is here! At least his beloved ship is here. And Jack still seems to take care of his ship's shape._ Elizabeth remembered how relentlessly the man had put his crew to scrub the deck and fix the littlest damages.

_Maybe Jack won't recognize me anymore?_ Elizabeth thought. _Maybe he doesn't want to see me and won't admit that I am his wife. _Elizabeth felt restlessness and concern. _There is one way to figure that out_, woman thought. _I need to find that man here and simply ask. Or if I don't need to ask… if he is with another woman._ Elizabeth gasped because of her thought. _It is worse than death if Jack is with another woman. If he doesn't love me anymore._

Elizabeth tried to fight against her tears because they didn't suit for the young man, whom she acted, to be safe from too curious eyes of Tortuga.

Elizabeth had been kidnapped once in this cursed town and the woman wasn't going to walk alone in woman's clothes twice.

xxx

Elizabeth pressed the hat deeper to her head, to cover her face. The woman hid her coin bag deep into her clothes and began to walk towards the town as she walked with head down, hand on the handle of the sword and trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.

People moved around her, laughing and fighting. None of them wasn't sober and it caused wild fights all the time. The women screamed and ripped each other hairs and some tried to seduce drunken pirates as they leaded them dark alleyways and offered heated moments for payment.

Elizabeth walked past dark alleyway and heard voices of passionate sex from the darkness of the smelly street. She saw a leg under a ragged dress, which wrapped around a fat, dirty waist of a man and Elizabeth turned her gaze away as she felt ill. Elizabeth couldn't stop thinking about if Jack was somewhere with a whore. She shook her head and noticed that she had walked in front of a tavern called Faithful Bride. It had always been Jack's crew's favorite tavern. Elizabeth opened the tavern door and sneaked middle of the candlelight, crowd and cheerful playing.

xxx

The place hadn't changed a bit. Inside was the same rage like it hadn't stopped even for a moment in these years. Elizabeth walked around in the downstairs as she avoided falling and swaying people. One woman almost knocked her down, but Elizabeth pushed her away and continued her journey towards tables at the back of the room.

In one of them sat Pintel and Ragetti, which argued something stupid as usual. Elizabeth smiled by herself, but for now she didn't want to go to talk with her old friends. She wanted to find Jack, but it seemed like he wasn't here at all, though she saw many members of his crew.

_Where the hell are you, Jack?_ Elizabeth thought. _Why Jack isn't downstairs with his crew? Is he with another woman somewhere… or is he somewhere in another tavern..? At the ship with his new wife? Or what..? Is he dead?_

Elizabeth felt that she would come crazy soon and she started to feel panic in this insane noise and the smell of alcohol. She felt tears to blur her eyesight and she leaned a moment against the wall as she breathed deeply. Somebody shouted something to her, but she didn't care about it.

Elizabeth blinked her eyes and breathed deeply. Then she began to walk again towards upstairs. She met more drunken pirates, who tightened their belts and had drunken whores with them.

Elizabeth began to hope that she would be drunk too, so this wouldn't be so hard to stand. However, she wanted to be sober for her own safety. But the cost was gnawing anxiety, which grew in the young woman's heart.

xxx

Elizabeth walked forward in the hall and wondered her next move. What would she do next? She couldn't run into some room. It was completely clear what happened in those rooms and Elizabeth didn't want to interrupt someone unknown, dangerous pirate's sex moment. She could lose her head if she did that kind of thing in this town. _But if she was going to interrupt Jack's sex moment, Jack would be the one who would lose his head_, Elizabeth thought poisonously.

Elizabeth was just wondering if she should stop fear of the worse thing when familiar man appeared from one room in front of her. Gibbs.

She was happy to see her old friend, but at the same time she remembered her disguise. She didn't want to reveal her real identity. But on the other hand, Gibbs seemed to be so drunk that he couldn't have even recognized his own mother.

"Hey, you there..." Elizabeth said as she lowered her voice.

Gibbs looked at her with stupid, drunken look on his face and asked: "Well, what's the matter, lad?"

"Have ye seen Jack?" Elizabeth asked. "He's yer Cap'n. Jack Sparrow… aye?"

"Aye… Damn", Gibbs mumbled as he swayed like he wondered for a moment who was Jack Sparrow. Then Gibbs seemed to understand who she had talked about. "Aye! Yes I saw him… a moment ago." The old First Mate mumbled and burped.

Elizabeth didn't care about it because at least Jack was alive! The woman barely could stand still because she was so excited.

"Where is he?" Elizabeth had patience to ask calmly. "I need to talk with him."

"He is there with the lass." Gibbs pointed a room in the back of the hall.

Elizabeth felt that her heart almost stopped and then started to beat faster because of fear. Tears burned her eyes and rage and waves of sickness shook her mind.

_Lass?! What bloody lass?!_

Elizabeth couldn't stand still anymore and she began to walk towards the door that Gibbs had pointed.

"What the hell happened to ye mate, huh?" Gibbs mumbled and staggered against a wall. Elizabeth didn't hear him; she grabbed of doorknob and wrenched the door open so that the hinges screeched.

And inside she saw, not that what she had imagined in her nightmares, but nothing pleasant at all.

xxx

Captain Jack Sparrow sat casually on a ragged armchair that had covered with velvet fabric. He was in his own element; in that element which people had used to see him before he married Elizabeth. A bottle of rum in his hand, cigarette between his fingers, pissed as a newt and on his lap sitting a beautiful and so sinful woman with big breasts and strong makeup.

There was dim light in the room; candles were all around it. But there was enough light that Elizabeth could see who sat on his husband's lap, laughing and keeping hands around Captain's neck and big breasts close to Jack's face.

Giselle.


	5. Chapter 5

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Elizabeth and Jack get into fierce fight in the tavern's room.

5.

Elizabeth stared at her husband and the woman on his lap and swallowed emptiness. She couldn't even start to cry, so shocked she was. She had been afraid of this. She had been afraid that she would find Jack fucking another woman, but still this felt thousands time worse than she had ever imagined.

Those two, the pirate and the whore, were completely drunk and didn't even notice that the door had opened. Jack laughed as his gold teeth flashed and he dropped his cigarette on the floor as Giselle stared at him cunningly, dangerously seducing to his eyes. The woman's face was so close to the man's face that she could kiss him and Giselle giggled to something that Jack had apparently told her a moment ago.

Elizabeth knew quite well, that the man can make women laugh. Many times she had herself laughed to Jack's funny stories. The bitter tears of disappointment slowly started to strangle Elizabeth's throat.

She stood at the door and she couldn't stop to stare those two. She would have wanted to run away, but then she suddenly felt boiling anger._ That filthy, mean slut who have been after my husband for years! _Years ago Elizabeth and Giselle had fought in the streets of Tortuga and back then Giselle had said that Jack would come back to her and he would leave Elizabeth.

Apparently it was real now.

Elizabeth stepped forward and closed the door behind her as she turned her gaze right towards Jack. She looked at the man under the shadow of her tricorne hat and didn't care about Giselle anymore. But Jack… Jack would have to take the consequences of his actions! She wanted to hear from Jack that their marriage was over and she wanted to hear why!

xxx

Jack noticed the stranger at the door. He startled as he turned his gaze away from Giselle's breasts and frowned as he looked at the young man, who came closer to them.

"Who the hell are ye?" Jack asked and felt himself too, how much his speech slurred. He was able to drink unbelievable much rum in these days. He hadn't done anything else but drank rum in this past year. "Listen lad, we have a private party here and yer not invited." Jack announced with egotistical grin and Giselle laughed as she stared at Elizabeth with naughty twinkle in her eyes.

Their stupid behavior woke Elizabeth from her trance and she couldn't control herself anymore. She walked fast as lightning to the chair as Giselle's face turned from naughty to confused. As Elizabeth pulled her sword from the sheath, it turned terrified. And from terrified it turned to incapacitated when Elizabeth put the blade onto Giselle's throat.

"You have exactly three seconds to leave this room, you despicable, dirty whore", Elizabeth hissed between her teeth. She didn't control herself anymore, anger and rage had taken power of her and she acted as they guided her.

"But…" Giselle stammered and Elizabeth saw fear in the woman's eyes.

"Giselle, when somebody keeps a sword on your throat, you shouldn't start to ask why or protest", Elizabeth said dangerously lowly, almost enjoying of the situation where she could humiliate that woman, who she probably hated most in this world. "And you wouldn't be the first chicken whose head I had cut if you are wondering that." Elizabeth added with creepily calm voice.

Jack was too drunk and too stunned to react in any way to threatening Elizabeth. He wasn't used to that kind of impudence, because people respected him too much in this town, so that anybody could dare to do something like this to him. He hadn't time to react when Elizabeth took a hold of Giselle's shoulder and pulled her up from Jack's lap.

"Now", Elizabeth said and forced Giselle to go to the door. "If you don't learn to keep your hands off that man, I will kill you, do you understand? He's not for you… You should know that!" Elizabeth took a one threatening step towards another woman and shouted: "Go to hell and rot there!"

Giselle almost stumbled on her red, worn out hems of her dress and stumbled towards the door as she stared at Elizabeth incessantly like she was waiting for the final slash. She fumbled the doorknob, managed to open the door and ran away as she slammed the door close behind her. Sound of her shoes echoed in the hallway and then fell silent as it mixed in the distant noise, which emanated from the downstairs.

xxx

Elizabeth's shoulders collapsed and she turned towards Jack. The man looked at her stunnedly as he frowned his dark brows. He stared at the young man, who had shooed his pleasant company. Jack was still quite drunk, but slowly this surprise began to clear his head. And he wasn't happy at all when this lad had made a twist in his plan. _Nobody needs to come to mess up Captain Jack Sparrow's evening plans!_

"What the hell do ye come rage here?" Jack snarled and got up as he slammed his rumbottle to the near table and pulled his sword from the sheath. "And who the hell are ye?!"

Elizabeth got furious as she heard Jack's angry voice. _So, Jack isn't pleased to my trick?! Well, that man isn't the only one who isn't pleased to something!_

She raised the sword and suddenly slashed towards Jack.

xxx

Jack barely managed to defend the slash as he staggered wobbly backward and cursed confusedly. Elizabeth attacked again towards her husband as she slashed furiously and hissed between her teeth: "I will kill you, you cocksman!"

Elizabeth chased Jack around the old armchair and empty bottles of rum fell under it. They rolled clattering on the floor and Elizabeth jumped over them as she attacked towards Jack, who barely managed to block the woman's stabs. Jack's sword fighting skills were badly in rust after many drinking months at Tortuga and drunkenness was also a reason for his clumsiness.

Jack staggered backward and at the same time Elizabeth flied his sword off his hand with one powerful slash. The weapon ended up to somewhere on the floor and Jack was left with any kind of shield as in front of him stood the young man, who was furious because of unknown reason.

Finally, Elizabeth kicked with all her might to Jack's knee and the man shouted because of pain as he fell on his knees. Elizabeth pointed with her sword to Jack's throat and a moment they were there motionlessly, both breathing vehemently.

Jack glanced at Elizabeth as he grimaced because of pain and raised another hand like a sign of peace as he asked: "Who might ye be, lad, and what the hell have I done? It's not me fault if yer wife has showed improper interest towards me…"

Elizabeth felt boiling anger and thought distantly that it was so typical for Jack to start irritate enemy in this kind of situation when he was in trouble.

But now it was time to end this masquerade and so Elizabeth wrenched the hat from her head, wiped her face in her coat sleeve and let her golden hair fall on her shoulders. She stared with flaming eyes to her husband, who couldn't look more stunned and at the same time Elizabeth slapped with open hand to Jack's cheek. It was the only thing that Elizabeth could show her despise towards Jack.

Jack's head turned to the side so that the beads and other items in his hair clinked and Elizabeth heard a quiet groan caused by pain. Yes, she knew that her slaps were powerful. But she had never needed to test them to her own husband. Now that day had come.

xxx

"E... Elizabeth." Jack groaned with mouth open because of amazement as he rubbed his cheek that was partly covered with bristle. The man's dark eyes blinked stunnedly.

"Hi, darling", Elizabeth hissed poisonously and she still didn't put her sword down. "So lovely to see you again!"

Jack looked at the woman as he still didn't completely understand that she was there. Then he tried to ask: "Elizabeth… what… what the hell are ye doing here?" Jack fixed his position a slight nervously. "Ye should be at Jamaica… at home…"

"Home!" Elizabeth spat the word right towards Jack face. "Bloody hell, Jack! It's strange that you even remember where the home is! I haven't seen you there!"

"Elizabeth, I…" Jack began, but Elizabeth interrupted with shouting:

"Damn it Jack, you won't talk yourself out of this! Your explanations won't work to me, you can believe that!"

Jack was quiet for awhile and stared at the woman expressionlessly. Then the man said: "At least allow me to get up from this floor and sit to that chair. Ye kicked quite nastily me…"

"Poor Jack!" Elizabeth said mockingly. "Now probably mummy should take care of you, dear boy, so that it will heal!"

"I wouldn't mind that…" Jack said accidentally, but he got a new powerful slap on his face.

"Sorry", Jack growled and put a hand on his smarting cheek. "That was a stupid thing to say…"

"Oh, you did notice that, idiot!" Elizabeth said angrily and still kept her sword towards Jack. "It's strange that you won't learn when it is time to keep your mouth shut. You will not begin to play your stupid games with me!"

"All right…" Jack mumbled as he straightened his beard's braids. "No games… Can I get up now? Yer not going to kill me, are ye..?"

"I would love to do that, you can believe it, you filthy rat", Elizabeth snarled. Then the woman took a few steps back as she slowly put her sword down.

Elizabeth felt how rage got a company from the pain. It felt like a squeezing feeling in her chest and tears began to fight their way out. The woman still tried to fight against them. She stared angrily down at Jack, who got up awkwardly from the floor and sat on the chair as he sighed deeply and rubbed his knee.

Suddenly Elizabeth felt herself very tired. She would have wanted to run away to the streets, to the dock and leave in first lift from this whole cursed island. She didn't want to see Jack ever again, but she knew that she would never have peace if they didn't talk this out right now.

Jack looked up at Elizabeth and saw sorrow, exhaustion and anger in the woman's beautiful eyes. Jack frowned sadly and let his gaze fall on the floor. His head began to sober up, first time in months and at the same time he realized the seriousness of the situation and felt ashamed. _What have I done!?_

Jack got up and tried to put his weight on his aching leg. He walked slowly and carefully closer to Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, please… Put that sword away. Ye don't need it against me." Jack raised his hand as he tried to touch Elizabeth, but she took a step back as her eyes were full of tears. Jack looked at the woman more sad look in his eyes and the situation began to dawn to him. _How could I have let this get into this?! What have I thought?! Nothin'?!_

At the same time Elizabeth asked: "Have you been here all the time with that slut… a whole year?"

Jack returned slowly to sit to the chair, set a fire on a cigarette and then said: "No, I haven't."

"Then what? What the hell have you been up to, when coming home wasn't an option?" Elizabeth wiped angrily her face and put her sword back to the sheath.

"Mostly I have been at the sea…" Jack said as he blew the smoke out from his nose. "And now I have been here the last two months. We got quite a great sack and the time has passed as we spent it."

"Oh, congratulations!" Elizabeth yelled and swayed her hand towards Jack. "You didn't even bother to use a few shillings to your son's birthday present. Yes, Jack! Do you remember that you have a son? His name is Alexander." Elizabeth felt that talking about the boy made her feel sad and she swallowed her tears again.

Jack sighed and let his gaze fall. Reminding of Alexander didn't make him feel good either. _Yes, I remember that I have a son. Does Elizabeth think that I have forgotten him? Well, I can't blame her about that. This whole miserable situation is me fault._

"Of course I remember", Jack said quietly. "How is he?"

"You should have come home and ask him yourself!" Elizabeth yelled and sat on the edge of the room's double bed, because she felt that her legs couldn't carry her anymore.

"Elizabeth… please don't…" Jack began, but the wife's angry scowl made him quiet.

"Have you been with that whore all the time? Are you together with her?" Elizabeth suddenly asked with the world's most vapidest voice as she feared the answer. She fingered nervously tiny string of the red blanket.

"No. No, I am not with her", Jack answered with drone voice. He knew that it would be very difficult to make Elizabeth believe anything after what she had seen, when she had come to this room.

"Have you fucked her?" Elizabeth almost felt that her voice was breaking.

"Elizabeth, stop." Jack sighed and stubbed out the cigarette on the floor.

"Have you?!" Elizabeth asked tirelessly.

"No!" Jack snarled and glanced at the woman. "No, I haven't!"

"You're lying!"

"No, I am not lying," Jack said and looked the woman right to her eyes. "I haven't been in bed with her."

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment and then said: "I know that you can lie without blinking an eye. I know it, Jack."

"I wouldn't lie to ye", Jack said softly and his voice almost made Elizabeth run to his arms. Suddenly Elizabeth wanted to forget the fight and the whole missing year, which they had been separated. Suddenly she just wanted to be close to the man that she loved.

But Elizabeth squeezed her hands into fists. She wouldn't surrender to Jack. She wouldn't fall to her yearn and longing feelings, but it was so hard to resist those because she just yearned to touch that man again.

Elizabeth gritted her teeth determinedly and sighed deeply. Then she shouted: "Do you think that I am so stupid that I believe you?!"

"Yer not stupid…" Jack began, but Elizabeth interrupted him again.

"Yes I am!" Elizabeth shouted and tears of anger began to fall uncontrollably on her cheeks. "I am the world's stupidest person because I married you! I should have known!" Elizabeth sobbed and her shoulder collapsed. She let her head fall down and sputtered with barely audible voice: "And then I waited patiently for you meanwhile you have been here flirting with whores! And you dare to say that I am not stupid..?"

Once again Jack got up from his chair and walked carefully to Elizabeth. He sat next to the woman, on the edge of the bed and touched carefully his wife's shoulder. Elizabeth trembled and pulled her shoulder farther from him as she whispered with weak voice: "Don't touch me, Jack. I don't know why I have ever let you to touch me…"

"Because ye wanted it…" Jack whispered back and touched Elizabeth's shoulder again. That made Elizabeth close her eyes for a moment. "Elizabeth, please look at me."

"You don't deserve it that I would look at you."

"I'm sure that I don't, but could ye still do it..?"

Elizabeth raised her gaze and her teary eyes met Jack's night dark eyes. Jack smiled sadly and raised his hand as he wiped tear away from the woman's cheek with his dirty fingers. Elizabeth was too weak to slap his hand away.

"Elizabeth", Jack said and looked at the woman's eyes. "I haven't been with anyone else."

"Then why Giselle was here and on your lap?" Elizabeth asked strictly and more tears fell on her cheeks.

"We are friends. We always have been."

"Friends don't rub their boobs on others face!" Elizabeth yelled and rose again to angry, prepared position. Jack pulled his hand away.

"She's just that kind of…" Jack said and knew himself too how stupid the explanation sounded.

"You should tell her to go farther if she turned too friendly!" Elizabeth emphasized mockingly the word "friendly".

"I should have done that", Jack said. "But…"

"But you didn't guess that I would appear here." Elizabeth said angrily.

Jack sighed and his gaze examined the wooden floor. _How could I ever explain understandably to Elizabeth what I felt when I left? How lost I was in that strange world, where I was suddenly wrenched from the Black Pearl and how I yearned to go home, at the sea._

At the same time, Jack noticed himself telling to Elizabeth how he had imagined to live without the sea, but it hadn't worked and then when Elizabeth had lost a baby, living on the land had turned intolerable. Not because of Elizabeth, but because of everything else. Elizabeth and the son were the only things that had kept him sane and out of the sea. But then when the troubles had come, pressure had grown too bearable.

Elizabeth listened quietly and let Jack tell. In some way she understood the man, but still she was angry because Jack had cowardly left the thought of coming back in the back of his mind. And that Elizabeth said to the pirate.

"But…" Jack explained as he tried to find the right words. "As the time passed, I started to believe that ye would be better live there without me."

"How on earth you could think that way?" Elizabeth wondered.

"I don't know… I guess I distorted things in me mind and I began to believe me own silly explanations." Jack sighed and glanced at Elizabeth. The woman seemed to calm down a bit and Jack would have wanted to pull her in his arms.

Elizabeth noticed Jack's gaze and she hoped the same thing. She wanted to be in safe in the embrace of those strong hands and taste Jack's skin on her lips. She just wanted to touch her own husband.

But instead, Elizabeth asked silently: "Didn't you miss us?"

"Everyday", Jack answered quietly and Elizabeth got lump in her throat because Jack's moving answer. She blinked her eyes and sighed. _Oh, I wish that we could embrace each other._ Elizabeth felt that her heart and body yearned for it, but her common sense was stronger for now.

At that very moment somebody knocked on the door and without listening an answer, the door slammed open. At the doorway were Gibbs, Pintel and Ragetti. The men had swords and pistols in their hands and they rushed in as they shouted: "Where is that intruder, Jack?! We will beat him in no tim…"

The threatening look on their faces disappeared when they noticed Jack sitting on the edge of the bed with a woman. And the men immediately recognized the woman to Captain's beautiful wife, Elizabeth.

"Mrs. Elizabeth!" Gibbs exclaimed and lowered his weapon. "What the hell are ye doing here?"

"Hi, Joshamee." Elizabeth laughed as last tears were still falling on her face. "Hi, Pintel and Ragetti."

The men bowed lightly as they were confused. All five stared at each other for a moment as the silence took over the room.

"Maybe ye should put those weapons away. There is nothin' to beat." Jack said dryly.

"Giselle came to us a while ago and told that somebody mad lad attacked on ye, Cap'n." Half bald Pintel explained and lowered his weapon, slightly disappointed as they missed a great battle.

"It was me", Elizabeth couldn't do anything else but laugh. "I was in disguise."

"Elizabeth, please don't scare us that way!" Ragetti shouted as his wooden eye turned around and he pushed the pistol back to his red belt.

"I am sorry." Elizabeth smiled and wiped the tears off. It was so wonderful to talk again with those blockhead pirates. She had unwittingly missed them all.

At the same time, they heard too familiar voice behind the men: "Jack! Are you alright?" Giselle peeked behind Pintel's shoulder to the room.

"Gis, don't go there now", Gibbs whished, but Elizabeth and Giselle had already noticed each other.

"Elizabeth!" Giselle exclaimed and pushed Pintel out of her way. "So wonderful that you decided visit to us." The tart flirted in the middle of the room as she enjoyed that she was in the middle of attention.

"You cunt, stay away. I still have my sword." Elizabeth said and got up threatfully from the bed as she wiped the long, blond hair away from her face. Jack got up too, but just to stop the fight if it turned too dangerous. Other pirates followed the situation nervously.

"Jack", Giselle coaxed as she pouted her red lips and stared at Elizabeth. "Come when you have finished your business with that cow."

Elizabeth hissed almost as insulting name back to Giselle and Elizabeth was going to step closer to the woman, but Jack's firm hold of her arm stopped her.

"Giselle", Jack snarled. "She is me wife, ye know it. And ye will not talk that way about her! Savvy?"

"Whatever." Giselle sneered knowingly and turned around. She walked past Jack's crew to the door and left the room as she said: "See ya later, honey."

xxx

As Giselle and the men had gone, Elizabeth still stood next to the bed with Jack behind her. Neither one did say anything and then Elizabeth suddenly walked towards the door. Seeing Giselle and her mean words had made her angry again.

"Where are ye going, Elizabeth?" Jack asked and walked after her to the door. He had to limp a little.

"I'm leaving", Elizabeth said grumpily. "It's night and I am tired."

"Stay here", Jack said and caught her up on the door. "There is a bed where ye can sleep."

"I don't want to be here anymore!" Elizabeth yelled. "I am tired of this horrible room, where you have been with that woman!"

"This is me room, Elizabeth!" Jack yelled back as he tried to prevent himself not to become angry because of Elizabeth's persistent taunting. But he couldn't afford to lose his temper. "Nobody has shared that bed with me."

Jack didn't want that Elizabeth would leave, not now when they were in a same room again. Jack said strictly: "Ye know very well what kind of place this is at night. Ye also know what kind of people walks here. I'm sure that ye remember very well."

Elizabeth didn't answer, just put her hand slowly on the doorknob. Suddenly she got something devilish in her eyes. The woman smiled wickedly and glanced at Jack, who stood in front of her. "I could always find a safe lap for myself. I guess it's easy in this town. Then you don't need to worry about me."

Elizabeth could almost see how a thought of her in the arms of another Tortuga pirate made Jack mad. The man slammed the door with his fist and shouted: "Yer not going anywhere!"

Elizabeth turned towards the room and hid her little smile. She was satisfied to Jack's answer, because at least she knew that Jack still cared about her. Even in some way. The woman sighed, walked back to the bed and sat on it.

"Alright, Jack… I will stay here", Elizabeth said and was quiet for a moment as she thought about what she would say next. "But just because of our sons. What would happen to them if I am not taking care of them?"

Jack glanced at Elizabeth. _What she just said?_ The Pirate Captain locked the door to prevent anybody to disturb them and sat on the chair as he stared at Elizabeth. He asked with hoarse voice: "What did ye say?"

"Yes, Jack", Elizabeth said calmly, with a slightly dry voice. "You should know about that too if you had been at home."

"About what?" Jack listened intently, without blinking his eyes, what Elizabeth was going to say.

"Three months ago I gave birth to your second son", Elizabeth stated and looked right to Jack's eyes. "His name is Ron Jacob."


	6. Chapter 6

Author: Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Jack and Elizabeth talk with each other to the late night and Jack isn't pleased at all as he hears the reason why Elizabeth began to search him.

6.

Jack stared past Elizabeth to somewhere emptiness. The time seemed like it had stopped and all the voices, which emanated to the room through the thin walls, sounded very quiet and trifling.

_Ron Jacob Sparrow._

That was the name of Jack and Elizabeth's three months old son. Jack had never met the child, but Elizabeth had just told that she had given birth to a son meanwhile Jack had been away from the home. _Unbelievable!_ Jack thought and tried really hard to make it clear to himself.

"Ye had a son while I was gone", Jack whispered with hoarse voice.

"So I did", Elizabeth answered with somewhat dry voice. "You managed to make me pregnant before you left." The woman snorted with frustrated voice. It made her furious, because she had unsuspectingly let Jack make love to her passionately and then on the next morning the man had disappeared from her life for a year. So typical of Jack to enjoy about something and then leave to avoid the consequences.

Elizabeth refused to think that Jack couldn't have possibly known that as they had moaned in ecstasy on their marriage bed, he had sown a seed of a new life in Elizabeth. And Elizabeth refused to think that actually she had been the one who had seduced Jack on that night to come into the bedroom, behind the closed door as Alexander had been already sleeping.

xxx

Jack looked at Elizabeth for a moment and he didn't know what to say. It all had happened like in a dream; the whole night had been like a long dream, which surprising twists took a hold of him.

Jack looked at the wooden floor and noticed himself to imagine Elizabeth with a little baby in her arms, standing in front of their house as Alexander played around her feet. And at the same time, Jack realized what all he had missed. Once again, he wondered his own foolishness.

"Ye shouldn't…" Jack began with hoarse voice. "Ye shouldn't be able to have more kids anymore."

"Who has told you that?" Elizabeth asked as she kept her voice strictly, but she almost felt affection towards Jack and his stunned face. The woman sighed and took a little relaxed position on the bed and secretly enjoyed Jack's amazement. She had many times dreamed of how she would tell Jack about their new child.

"Well, because…" Jack stammered and still tried to understand what he had just heard. "When after Alexander and that… that, who never got a chance to born… a long time passed between them." Jack fell silent for a moment and Elizabeth let her gaze fall. The memory of their dead child still floated heavily on them. "And then happened that… yeah." Jack said quietly, without wanting to say it aloud.

Elizabeth sighed and looked at Jack and his collapsed bearing. Again Elizabeth felt sadness because of her unborn child and she wondered if the grief was never going to let her in peace. She looked at Jack, who had fallen silent as he had mentioned the dead child and suddenly Elizabeth saw the same sorrow in his eyes which had tormented her ever since the miscarriage. She saw how the loss still hurt Jack and at that moment she forgot her anger and understood that Jack felt as sad as she did.

Suddenly Elizabeth felt necessary need to make it up to Jack, how she had neglected her husband after their baby had died. Elizabeth got up from the bed and walked next to Jack's chair.

Jack raised his glance and looked a bit suspiciously at Elizabeth, who walked slowly in front of him. W_hat she is going to yell about now?_

But Elizabeth raised her hand and let the tips of her fingers to touch softly her husband's tanned cheek. Tenderly, lightly as a feather. At the same time she whispered softly between her lips: "I am so sorry, Jack…" Elizabeth smiled sadly. "I am sorry that I didn't notice it hurt you too. Maybe we wouldn't be in this situation if I had noticed."

Jack sighed because of amazement and closed his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them again and looked at Elizabeth with his dark and deep eyes. "Ye are amazing, Liz…" He whispered. "Ye are sorry though I have done everything wrong…"

"Yes you have, I can admit that", Elizabeth sighed. "But I have done something wrong too and maybe you would have left some mistakes to undone if I had treated you better back then…"

"Ye have treated me better than anyone else", Jack whispered. "Ye gave me yer lovely little heart. I never could have dreamed of that kind of treasure."

Elizabeth sighed and caressed lightly Jack's face. She enjoyed as she was able to feel familiar skin against her fingers. "Of course I gave, Jack. But I was just so focused to my own grief that I didn't notice yours. We should have helped each other over it. 'In sickness and in health', Jack. That's what we promised to each other."

"So we did. It happened 7 years ago, in December." Jack glanced at his wife and laughed as he saw the woman's astonished face. "Yes, Lizzie, I remember our wedding day."

"Well, when it was?" Elizabeth asked quietly.

"28th of December, 1704. At the west shore of Marie Galante, at the time of sunset." Jack grinned with his familiar way and enjoyed as he proved Elizabeth's suspicions unnecessary. The woman tried to hide her smile as she saw it and Jack continued with blinking his eye: "The weather was excellent and the wind was moderate. Ye had a white dress and flowers in yer hair. And I looked as handsome as always."

Elizabeth sighed as she rolled her eyes and said: "Alright, you remember it."

Jack turned serious and took gently a hold of Elizabeth's hand and kissed her fingers. His soft, warm lips touched Elizabeth's skin lovingly and the woman couldn't stop small, delighted moan escaping from her lips. Jack's touch felt so good.

"Would ye become angry if got up from here and…" Jack said and put Elizabeth's hand against his cheek and his own hand on it. He raised his glance to his wife's beautiful face and looked deep in her eyes. So deep that Elizabeth almost felt dizzy. Just like years ago.

"And what..?" Elizabeth whispered as her voice trembled and she answered to Jack's glare. She felt breathless, her pulse quickened and she realized clearer than before that she had been very lonely woman in the past year. And only Jack could satisfy her yearning. Jack was the one, who had a hold of her, power to make her miserable or the happiest woman on earth.

Jack got up slowly from his chair as he still held of Elizabeth's hand. The wooden floor creaked quietly when he took a step closer to Elizabeth. He took his another hand to the woman's waist and pulled his wife closer, so that their stomachs were almost against each other, so that Elizabeth's breasts almost pressed against Jack's muscular chest. Jack raised his hand and caressed Elizabeth's smooth and a bit dirty cheek. The woman trembled again and her lips opened slightly, like by itself.

_Cursed man_, Elizabeth thought. _How can he always have this kind of affect on me..?_ She felt that the woman inside of her was waking. For over a year she had been only a mother, but now Jack's masculine body against her own made the woman inside of her to shout because of yearning. This was her soulmate, the one that she needed. At that moment, she only wanted to be together with Jack…in all ways.

"And I would show ye how much I have missed ye… darlin'." Jack said with low voice as he answered to Elizabeth's question. The closeness of Elizabeth affected strongly on him. He wanted to own again those wonderful, soft lips on his lips, he wanted to own Elizabeth's body with his own body and explore every spot of the woman's beautiful body with every inch of his body. He wanted to touch Elizabeth in that way like she stood there in front of him. Beautiful, vulnerable, tempting, his wife and the mother of his children.

Elizabeth saw desire and yearning in Jack's eyes and she bent closer, wanting to let Jack kiss her passionately. She knew that Jack would do it and she knew that she would enjoy of it and answer to it.

Oh, because they were meant to each other! Elizabeth was sure about it, sure than about anything else in her life. She knew that Jack would be hers until the end of the world and she would be Jack's. No-one or nothing could change that. Not Giselle, the sea, Will Turner, King of England or piracy. Nothing.

But though they were meant to each other didn't mean that they could live happily together. Too obvious evidences were against it; their happiness wasn't more lasting than anyone else's. That thought made Elizabeth to withdraw.

Jack looked at the woman and saw hesitation and uncertainty in her eyes. He couldn't prevent himself to feel disappointed. He knew that Elizabeth wasn't ready yet, not so soon after everything that had happened. It was too early.

_Good, kind little Lizzie… She always does what her heart tells her_, Jack thought and felt affection towards his wife, who looked at him yearning but took a step back. _She always does what is right. That's one reason why I love her. _

xxx

"Tell me what's he like?" Jack asked when they sat on the bed a little later. Elizabeth's anger had calmed down a bit and the woman seemed to want, at least for now, to believe Jack's explanations.

Maybe all what had happened in the evening had moved away from the fact that they were together again. In the end and in spite of it all that was the thing what they had both missed.

Elizabeth couldn't prevent a brilliant smile to form on her face when she thought about little Ron. Jack noticed it and he smiled too. He caressed gently Elizabeth's hair and said: "So lovely to see ye smiling, darlin'…"

"I haven't had a reason to smile on this evening", Elizabeth said, but her words were more just like statement than a nag. "But Ron… He is perfect." Elizabeth said as she began to tell about their son. She closed her eyes for a moment and saw the cute face that belonged to her youngest child. "He looks just like you," Elizabeth continued and opened her eyes again. "Dark hair and dark eyes. Your nose and your chin."

"How fantastic that the boy is going to be as handsome as me! That's me boy!" Jack praised satisfied and grinned that his golden teeth flashed in the light of the candle, which was on the table. Elizabeth sighed and rolled her eyes again. _Old, familiar Jack_.

Jack turned towards Elizabeth and said with his dark eyes twinkling seducing in the dim light: "And as beautiful as his mother." Jack let the flirt be transparent in his voice as he smiled charmingly.

Elizabeth sneered to the compliment and she couldn't stop her cheeks turning to red. Jack's words caressed her weak spirit, but still she said as she kept her voice neutral: "That flattering doesn't help you, wretch."

"Is that so?" Jack grinned confidently and then said: "Well, tell me more about me son?"

"He is calm", Elizabeth told and smiled again. "Much calmer than his brother at that age. He cries seldom and he had been quite healthy too. Little stomachaches, nothing dangerous."

"What about when ye carried him? How was the birth?" Jack kept asking. He felt that he wanted to know about everything what he had missed.

Elizabeth glanced to his husband with amazement. She had somewhat hard to believe that Jack was interested about how the birth had went and what kind of pains she had forced to bear when she had been pregnant. But when Elizabeth thought the time when they had lived on the Black Pearl and she had still had Alexander inside of her, she realized that Jack had been like this before too. Always interested about her condition and needs. Always ready to get something to eat for her from the galley or massage her back when the baby kicked in her womb. Or ready to put some cooling salve on Elizabeth's sore and swollen ankles, which had caused by pregnancy and helping her in the deck's stairs when the woman had walked around on the upper deck with her big tummy.

Elizabeth smiled and suddenly realized how advantaged she had been when she had been pregnant for the first time. Not all men showed so much interest in their woman's blessed state like Jack had showed.

Elizabeth glanced at Jack and noticed that the man still looked at her. They stared at each other in the silence and then Elizabeth said: "It all went quite well. I felt sick like before, but nothing worse that I couldn't bear. My back was sore and my shoulders were aching in the end, but that's was just normal." There were slight sarcasm in her voice and she smiled a little as she looked at Jack. The man listened intently and it was difficult to say what he had in his mind.

"I am sorry that I wasn't there with ye." Jack suddenly looked very serious and genuinely remorseful.

Elizabeth didn't answer anything, but soon she said: "I would have wanted you to be there with me, though I survived alone from the pregnancy."

"I know, Liz. Ye are strong and ye survive from anything, I already know that", Jack said quietly. "But I should have been there by ye side. Ye are me wife and the child is mine." Jack looked at his wife apologetically.

"You are right about that", Elizabeth said. "But there is no need to change the past because our child is born and he is doing well. I hope so."

xxx

"Where are our kids now?" Jack asked and lay down on the bed. He couldn't stop himself to yawn a bit. The drunkenness and late time made him extremely tired. Elizabeth noticed it and felt that she was exhausted too. It had been a long day and unusually hard.

"I have to speak with you about the children, because I have a real reason to come here," Elizabeth said.

Jack looked at her and frowned with his eyes half-open. "What is that reason, Liz?"

Elizabeth bit her lip nervously. She must tell that she and the children were fugitives now, their home had been burned and King's men wanted to kill her family. She was afraid if Jack was willing to help her. She was sure that he would, but still she hesitated. Should she tell in the morning when Jack would be completely sober? But then the man might be bad-tempered because of his hangover.

Jack rose to sit on the bed and looked intently at Elizabeth. She took a hold of his wife's shoulder and asked: "Lizzie, what about the children? Are they alright?"

As she saw real worry in Jack's dark eyes, Elizabeth said: "Yes, they are alright. But they are in great danger like me. And you too, Jack. That's why I am here."

Jack frowned more worriedly and seemed to completely forgotten his tiredness. "Elizabeth, tell me right now what has happened!" Jack took a hold of Elizabeth's another shoulder with another hand and shook her lightly.

"Soldiers of the King, Jack…" Elizabeth began and suddenly felt fear pressing her chest as she remembered how close of the death she and the children had been as they had fought their way out from the burning house in the middle of the night.

Jack waited and stared in Elizabeth's eyes.

"Aye, what did they do?" Jack's voice changed to demanding. "Elizabeth, tell me right now what they did!" Jack almost shouted and made her startle. Jack was normally calm man, but Elizabeth had noticed before that if something threatened Elizabeth, Jack might turn really dangerous and show the real pirate even the criminal nature. Nature that had made Jack the most famous pirate at the Caribbean.

Elizabeth raised her gaze and she had tears in her eyes. "They came in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. They tried to kill, at least arrest us. Our house has been burned, Jack…" Elizabeth suddenly understood that all of her precious things, all her memories were ash now.

"Our house has been burned…"


	7. Chapter 7

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R / slightly NC 17

Summary: Jack and Elizabeth make up in mushy mood, but something… or someone… messes their plans completely.

7.

The night had passed and flames of the candles had faded away as Elizabeth had told to Jack the whole story about how she and the children had survived from the attack of the King's soldiers and escaped out of the fire that the redcoats had set on their own house. She had told how she had left the children to Anna, so that the girl would take the boys to hide to Racoon Cay island and how Elizabeth herself had left to seek help from Jack.

Jack, whose drunkenness had begun to decrease, had listened the story as the expressions of rage, amazement and self-blame had changed on his tired face. He had blustered to kill all members of the Royal Navy in the Caribbean and he had praised Elizabeth and his whole family unbelievable brave and strong.

But it was clear to both of them that Jack finally wanted to do something for his wife and his children and they had decided that the Black Pearl would leave the filthy shores of Tortuga behind and take course towards Racoon Cay tomorrow evening when the crew would be gathered and the ship would be stocked with necessary items.

"Why didn't ye tell this earlier?" Jack had asked, but he had realized the answer.

"Well, I didn't want to talk with you because I just wanted to kill you as I came here and saw what you have been doing with that whore!" Elizabeth had yelled.

"I haven't done anythin'…" Jack had tried to protest with low voice.

"Yeah, right", Elizabeth had answered with dry sarcasm in her voice. Her anger had flamed on again. "That bitch's breasts were onto your face! You should have asked her to go away if you didn't want her so close…"

Jack had been quiet and looked very gloomy. He hadn't had any words to defense himself.

"But anyway", Elizabeth had sighed to change the subject because arguing didn't help them. "The main point now is to take the boys in a safe place and to a new home."

Anxiety and concern of the children had reflected from her face. Jack, who had noticed it, had wrapped carefully his arms around the woman's shoulders and pulled her against him. Elizabeth hadn't had any strength to resist and so she had cried against Jack's shoulder as she had made wet the pirates' white, shabby shirt.

Jack had leaned his cheek against Elizabeth head and listened quietly the woman's sobbing. He had just held of his wife and hoped that his closeness would bring at least some sort of safety to Elizabeth.

Soon the woman had raised her teary eyes to Jack and the man had answered to her glare gently as he had once again wiped away the tears, which had streamed down her face.

"Don't cry anymore, Princess…" Jack had whispered and looked deep in to the woman's eyes and it had been softer look on his handsome face than ever. "I won't let anything bad happen to ye nor the kids…"

"You haven't called me with that name in years", Elizabeth had whispered as she had sobbed once more.

"Aye, I haven't", Jack had said as playful smile had appeared on the corner of his mouth and his night black eyes had twinkled in dim light. "Do ye know why..?"

"No I don't know, Jack." Elizabeth had blinked last tears off her long lashes. Jack always made her feel better.

"Because yer not a Princess anymore…", Jack had answered and Elizabeth had been able to hear a seducing tone in the Captain's voice that appeared when Jack wanted Elizabeth to fully pay attention to him.

And even now Elizabeth hadn't been able to do anything else but ask quietly as she stared at her husband's dark chocolate colored eyes: "Then what am I, Jack..?"

"Ye, me luv…" Jack had grinned charmingly. "Are me Queen…"

xxx

Elizabeth lied awake on the bed of the tavern's room. She wore only her shirt and she had settled under cold sheets and blown the flames off. The woman was exhausted, but the day had been so hectic and painful that it took a while before she calmed down completely.

Jack had wanted to be a gentleman and had placed himself on the red armchair and given the bed fully to Elizabeth as the woman still had been quite cold and distant, despite all of Jack's trying to appease and charm her.

So, Jack had let her be and after few relaxing swig of rum, he had fallen asleep almost immediately. The night had been quite hard to the Pirate Captain too.

Elizabeth looked at her husband, who slept a few feet away from her. Jack had pulled his long bluish gray coat to cover himself and leaned his head against back rest of the chair. He had sunk downwards in the chair as he seemed to sleep in very uncomfortable position. The man snored lightly and sometimes he turned his head and breathed deeply in his sleep. Sometimes his black moustache trembled and Jack mumbled something incomprehensible.

Elizabeth laughed silently as she heard so familiar, amusing and unclear words from her husband's mouth. The woman had noticed ever since their early moments together that Jack spoke a lot as he slept. _Why wouldn't he when Jack speaks so much when he is awake_, Elizabeth thought and suddenly she felt the gentle memories to fill her mind. She closed her eyes and imagined them to the cabin of the Black Pearl like then when everything had been so new and wonderful… so long time ago.

As Elizabeth reminisced those times, she finally fell asleep and she slept all the way to the new morning.

xxx

It didn't take long until the morning came and Jack started to wake in the chair. He opened his eyes and felt the temporary headache that was caused by light and then he felt himself ill. _Typical morning after drinking night…_

Suddenly he noticed something that he didn't notice every morning; his back ached painfully. He had slept the whole night in a very bad position and it hadn't done good to his quite old, weathered back. Jack wasn't young anymore though he always wanted to forget that fact. He was 44 years old and it wasn't the age of a young lad.

Jack had noticed that his body had ached earlier too and sometimes the youngest members of his crew had teased him about his age and especially about his almost half age younger wife. But Jack had always stopped that talk by saying that the age of forty wasn't bad age for the Captain. And then he had announced that those kind of young rascals, who didn't even have dry ears and working cocks, should go to hell because they wouldn't be anything against his unbelievable intelligence and sexy handsomeness if they compete in piracy, drinking booze or seducing women!

But now Jack focused to clear his mind, because he felt quite confused after last night. What had happened? What was the bloody reason that he had passed out on this horrible and uncomfortable chair?

He remembered that Giselle had seen him in the middle of the raging crowd. Jack had sat with his crew in their table, drinking and laughing as Giselle had sneaked past the crowd and sat on his lap. Jack had laughed and let the wench to flirt on his knee. He had never been able to resist the flirting of beautiful women. And Giselle seemed to have some sort of affect on him. Maybe it was because they had known each other ever since they were teenagers.

Jack had drunk more rum and he had spent the night with staring Giselle's big breasts and talking with Gibbs and the crew. Jack didn't remember when he had been sober at Tortuga. He had to be sober sometimes at the sea so that he was able to do his job, but he was free to drink as much as he wanted at Tortuga. And so he had done ever since he had left Jamaica and the shores of his home behind him for the last time.

Jack remembered distantly that once again Giselle had smiled seducing and made him believe that Elizabeth was the wrong woman to him. That wicked woman, who surely had forgotten him already and taken a new man. Jack had been so drunk and listened Giselle's devious and cunning words, listened the wench's warbling voice that had promised to comfort and tend him over the pain that Elizabeth had caused him.

And Jack had believed Giselle once again and let the woman lead him to the upstairs. He had allowed Giselle to kiss him passionately in the corridor, opened the door of his room and walked backwards as Giselle had followed him like a shadow (or a leech). Jack had fallen on the chair with the woman on him and laughed drunkenly.

He didn't remember anything that had happened after that. _Did I shag Giselle..? __Bloody hell, I can't remember._ Jack held his head and felt the nasty fear caused by uncertainty. _Damn, I never intended to cheat on Elizabeth…_

But then different flashback appeared on his mind. He had seen a very strange dream about his wife. He had seen a dream that Elizabeth had come and threatened him as she was dressed as a man.

_Goddammit, how strange dream! Usually I see quite different dreams about her_, Jack thought.

But suddenly something proved that he hadn't seen just a dream. He heard noise somewhere from the back of the room. Jack startled and turned his head automatically towards the noise. He saw fair-haired woman standing without a shirt, her back facing him. The woman had tied her hair up and she had bent over a bureau that had a wash-basin on it. The woman wiped her face and neck with a moist towel.

Jack couldn't see her face, but still he would have recognized the woman even in his sleep. It was his wife Elizabeth.

xxx

Elizabeth startled when she realized that Jack was awake. She realized that she was half-naked and looked her husband carefully over her shoulder.

"Jack… You are awake", Elizabeth gasped. "I just wanted to wash myself and I found water in here and…" Elizabeth realized that she talked something stupid. She was embarrassed. Jack had slept so deeply as she had woken that she hadn't believed that the man would wake anytime soon. The woman fell silent and turned her face to hide her blushing. She let the towel fall to the wash-basin and reached to the bed where she had her shirt.

But suddenly she felt gentle grasp in her wrist. She looked surprisedly down and saw Jack grabbing of her wrist with his left hand. She noticed that the man didn't have any rings in his fingers except the wedding ring. Elizabeth raised her slightly frightened gaze to Jack's face and saw amazement in the man's eyes. As if he was surprised to see her.

"Elizabeth, I thought that last night was a dream", Jack whispered with hoarse voice and he couldn't prevent his eyes to look at Elizabeth's bare back. He was confused. The woman, who had lived only in his dreams, was now in front of him.

"No it wasn't, Jack." Elizabeth said quietly as she rose up and kept her back towards Jack. Though they had made love, washed and swum together, though that man had seen her naked many times, she still felt shy and didn't want to turn towards Jack.

Elizabeth was a little afraid that maybe Jack wouldn't like her body anymore. She indeed was a little heavier after the pregnancy and childbirth. Her breasts were huge compared to the breast she had had before, because they had swollen up as the milk had risen to them after Ron's birth and she had a few scars in her stomach. But otherwise she had recovered quite well, because she had tried to avoid the foods that would swell her more. And the hard works of the house had kept her moving.

But it wouldn't become girl's body anymore, because it was the body of grown-up woman and the body of a mother.

Elizabeth remembered quite well that Jack had been obsessed to her ever since they had made love for the first time. Despite about if Elizabeth was completely untouched, if she had huge tummy in the front side of her body or if she had just given birth. It never had mattered, but what about now when everything had somewhat changed..?

Elizabeth flinched lightly when she suddenly felt Jack's fingers moving on her back. The woman closed her eyes and let the air out of her lungs.

"God, how beautiful ye are, Lizzie…" Jack whispered behind her. "Ye are beautiful than… anything else on the earth."

"Oh Jack, stop it." Elizabeth sputtered and she was very embarrassed.

"I told the truth", Jack's voice said coarsely behind Elizabeth and at the same time the woman felt that the pirate took a hold of her waist and came to stand right behind her. "Ye used to believe me when I said that."

"Jack, I have just been pregnant… and given birth to a child three months ago…" Elizabeth said and fingered nervously the towel in the wash-basin, but still enjoyed of Jack's closeness.

Jack caressed Elizabeth's tummy with his hand and kissed carefully her nape. The man breathed heavily and without saying any word, he sucked gently Elizabeth's ear. Elizabeth moaned blissfully and squeezed the wet towel in her fist. The water gushed between her fingers to the wash-basin.

Elizabeth could feel the familiar desire to sneak slowly into her body. It hardened her swollen nipples and sneaked along her stomach down towards her intimate area that was covered with her trousers. Jack managed to do it just as easily as before. And the Captain wouldn't give up until Elizabeth lay naked and powerless on the bed, under her husband.

"Have ye recovered from the birth already?" Jack whispered to his wife's ear. He was breathless. "Oh God, Lizzie, how I have missed ye… I can't believe that ye are there…"

"Jack… I… We can't…" Elizabeth felt Jack's hand moving up and she couldn't stop it as the hand took a hold of her breast. Elizabeth moaned aloud and she was completely heated. She had lived a year alone and yearned for this for a long time. She wanted this too much to stop.

"Do ye think that we can do it, Liz..?" Jack asked and caressed Elizabeth's breast. The man weighted it in his hand and caressed the skin sometimes gently, sometimes harder.

"I… don't know." Elizabeth whispered vehemently and she knew that they could. She dropped the towel from her hand. She heard a little splash when it fell into the water.

Jack's hand still handled Elizabeth's swollen breast, because the man seemed to be mesmerized of that part of the body. He played with it, like a child with a new toy and at the same time he let his another hand caress the woman's waist. Jack grinned against Elizabeth's nape and whispered: "Look at that, darlin'… These yer… things… have changed a bit when I last time saw them…"

Elizabeth moaned when Jack pinched lightly her nipple and the woman sputtered: "Are they changed into… better or… oh, Jack… worse..?"

Jack laughed with low voice and Elizabeth could almost feel her husband's grin against her neck. Jack said mischievously: "Funny lass, they are bigger… Of course they are better…"

"You pig!" Elizabeth shouted playfully. Jack laughed against her neck and suddenly he turned his wife around and pulled her in the safety of his arms, chest against chest. Jack's eyes were so seducing, gentle and mischievous that Elizabeth couldn't do anything else but stare at them speechlessly once again.

How somebody could have got that kind of eyes? How they could be so tempting and so expressive! With just using his eyes, Jack could make Elizabeth to do things without saying any word to her.

Elizabeth didn't resist when Jack pressed his warm lips to hers and kissed her mouth gently. Jack growled happily and caressed Elizabeth's back as the woman wrapped her arms around him. They enjoyed of each other with closed eyes, tongues entwined, lips tasting other's long yearned familiar flavor.

Jack walked backwards and pulled Elizabeth with him on the bed. Their lips never stopped to touch each other, but then Jack stumbled on the hem of the sheet and he fell on his back to the bed and laughing Elizabeth fell on him.

They rolled on the bed kissing and laughing against each other's mouth. The sunshine shined through the curtains and the whole world seemed, felt and sounded so bright and fortunate. They had already forgotten the fight they had had yesterday and focused only to each other, because they both had missed each other very much. Now they both just enjoyed their presence and closeness.

Elizabeth giggled when Jack bent and tickled his wife's breast with his tongue. The breast let out a little of light liquid and it poured down towards Elizabeth's armpit. The woman looked at Jack as she breathed vehemently, she stopped laughing and she waited what Jack would do.

The pirate stared intensively to Elizabeth's eyes, bent down and licked the milk away from her skin with his skillful tongue. The woman shivered, closed her eyes and she was very delighted when Jack licked her nipple and made more milk to come out. The man closed his mouth around the nipple and sucked it gently. Elizabeth felt the same feeling like when Ron sucked her breast. She felt the milk coming out of her, but now she felt huge passion because she knew that it was a grown-up man, who played with her breast and he happened to be the love of her life and the most experienced lover at the Caribbean.

"What's it tastes like, Jack?" Elizabeth panted and Jack raised his head as he stopped sucking her breast. The man seemed to think and smacked his mouth a little. Elizabeth giggled. Jack grinned to his wife and said as he caressed her stomach gently: "If I tell the truth, luv… and don't turn upset now… It isn't anything special…" Jack looked at his wife and pretended to be very serious and sorry. "Quite tasteless too."

Elizabeth tried to act like she was upset and slapped on Jack's head and she couldn't prevent herself to giggle. "You fool pirate, it's meant for a little baby!"

"But ye always say that I am one", Jack teased and lowered his head against her breast and stared at the woman with his dark eyes.

"Yes, that's true… I think I have three kids instead of two", Elizabeth teased him. "But you just are too old man so I can't think of you as a child…"

Jack shouted as he was upset and suddenly tickled Elizabeth. The woman squirmed under him, screaming and giggling. Jack laughed and stopped teasing Elizabeth and said: "Old man, ayeh? Says the missy teenage girl…"

"Jack!" Elizabeth screamed and tried to tickle her husband, but Jack captured her hands and kept the woman on the bed. "I am not a teenage girl, you scallywag!" Elizabeth shouted.

"Yes luv, unfortunately ye are wrong. Yer puberty is still badly unfinished", Jack teased and she heard laughing in his voice. "Yer breasts aren't even grown to their right size and…"

"You can't say that, just look at them, you ancient senile man!" Elizabeth giggled and tried to squirm away of his hold. She had laughed so much that her stomach was aching, but she couldn't stop.

"You will pay for that insolence, me lady." Jack laughed and still kept Elizabeth under him and bent to tickle the woman on her tummy with his beard. Elizabeth screamed and begged Jack to stop. The man raised his head and said: "Ye still would be virgin if I hadn't come and…"

"And what, you braggart?" Elizabeth laughed.

Jack was going to answer her, but at the same time somebody knocked on the door and it opened suddenly. At the door was Gibbs, who had stunned look on his face as he saw the situation in the room. The old man stared at the couple on the bed and then scratched confusedly his sideburns.

Elizabeth blushed and pulled the pillow to cover her breasts. She started to laugh and turned her gaze away, preventing to look at Gibbs' old and stunned face. Jack glanced at his wife and he laughed too. He didn't get off on Elizabeth; he just took comfortable position against the pillow that the woman held and asked from his first mate as he smiled cunningly: "Well, what's the matter?"

Elizabeth tried not to laugh. The situation seemed to be somewhat funny.

"Cap'n, I… Erm, apparently ye have made up?" Gibbs said and laughed a little nervously.

"Yes we have and ye are disturbing the moment of officializing… erm… our reconcile", Jack said with pleased voice and caressed Elizabeth's shoulder. "So tell me quickly what ye want?"

Gibbs pulled himself together and said: "Jack, ye have to come down with me because Cotton has disappeared to somewhere. He drank too much yesterday and disappeared with those women if ye remember?"

"No, I don't", Jack said as he sounded fed up. "But he will appear soon from somewhere."

"We have searched for him already and the crew insists that ye will come down."

"Oh, bloody hell." Jack cursed and sighed. He turned to look at Elizabeth and the woman smiled to him. "I'm sorry but it seems that I need to go to fix up this bloody mess if we're are going to leave with me ship and with me crew in the evening."

"You remember what we agreed to do", Elizabeth said and her smile widened.

"Of course I remember. Now I remember everything about last night", Jack said and kissed Elizabeth's nose.

"Just go, I'll wait here", the woman said. "And you'd better return this time."

"Darlin'…" Jack said with his most charming voice. "I have returned before ye even notice."

Jack got up from the bed and dressed on his coat and hat. He took his belt and put it over his shoulder and the sheath felt empty. Jack stared at it confusedly and heard Elizabeth's giggle. He glanced at the woman and asked as he raised his dark brow: "Do ye know where is me sword, luv?"

"You really don't remember everything, dear." Elizabeth teased. "Your sword is there behind the chair, on the floor."

"Did ye throw it there?" Jack asked with sarcastic voice and walked in the corner of the room and found his sword. He picked it up, checked it quickly and put it back to its place in the sheath.

"You should practice sword fighting, Jack, because I beat you easily last night." Elizabeth said and stretched on the bed with satisfied smile on her face. At the same time, Gibbs went to the corridor to wait Jack.

"What!" Jack shouted and tried to sound upset again. "Ye say that ye won Captain Jack Sparrow in a fight?!"

"Yes, dear, I did it yesterday and it was easy", Elizabeth laughed. "But I am Mrs. Elizabeth Sparrow, so you didn't have any chances against me."

"Shut it, woman!" Jack shouted as he frowned funnily and they both laughed. "Don't underestimate me sword fighting skills. Besides I was drunk."

"I don't underestimate, because I know that they are nonexistent in these days. Though you would be sober…"

"Wait until I come back and I will show ye that me sword is in great shape, luv." Jack grinned and looked very pompous in the middle of the floor.

Elizabeth laughed and said with teasing and sweet voice: "Don't drop it as you go, dearest. You are so old alrea…"

"Shut yer mouth already, lass." Jack shouted and walked towards the door. Elizabeth smiled to him. Everything was like before and it felt so good. It was wonderful to feel so happy again, after a long time.

"I will come back within few hours. Then we shall leave to the ship", Jack said as he pointed his words to Elizabeth. Gibbs looked at Jack with confused look on his face. _What the Captain has planned with his wife? Well, I am sure that I will find that out soon._

"Have a nice day, boys!" Elizabeth said as the men disappeared from her sight. She already heard them talk about weighing anchor in the evening.

Elizabeth smiled and waited that Jack would close the door. Then she got up and began to dress up. And she couldn't stop smiling and sometimes she would have wanted to dance around the room. She felt herself stupid, but she couldn't do anything to her happy feeling.

Unfortunately the happy moments in her life had set to end soon. But Elizabeth didn't know that yet, she just sang and laughed happily like a teenage girl in love.

xxx

Elizabeth tried to kill loneliness as she waited Jack and as the day passed slowly. She dressed up once again in her disguise and went to buy food like fruits and bread from the merchant cart. She felt herself very hungry and as she walked around in the town, she sat to eat the food near the docks.

As she chewed the bread and an apple and looked at the sparkling sea, Elizabeth had time to think about many kind of things. She looked at the pirates and drunks that walked past her and she felt that she belonged to this world more than she had ever belonged to Port Royal. She was different than these people, but still so same. That feeling was hard to explain to anybody, because Elizabeth didn't even understand it herself.

Elizabeth looked at the sea that glimmered between big ships, which had anchored or tied to the dock. Dazzling horizon mixed with the sky that the sun lightened and Elizabeth almost felt becoming blind as the light hit her eyes.

The sea was a powerful element, even so powerful that it managed to tear lovers apart. Elizabeth felt suddenly fear because of that huge, powerful and strange world. It had taken her husband's heart a long time before Elizabeth had even born. Must she compete against it in the future? Was their happiness strong enough to tolerate the tempting that the sea caused to Jack? Was Elizabeth anything against the Goddess of the sea, wild surges and salty sea wind..? Elizabeth hoped with all her heart that Jack would choose her and the children and finally calm down with her. The woman knew that the life being separated wouldn't work anymore. She wouldn't be willing to do it anymore.

_Jack must do his final decision after our journey._

xxx

Elizabeth still had quite a lot of money, but she could never know when she really would need it. Still the woman felt the awakening of her feminine side when she walked along Tortuga's streets and saw dresses and jewels in the windows. She would have wanted to dress up in beautiful and expensive dress, use perfume, make up her face and put hair up. Something that she hadn't done in years.

Elizabeth stopped in front of an old store, which had pink window frames and a door frame. _How sweet_, Elizabeth thought by herself and smiled. She didn't care about people's stunned faces when she went to the women clothing store, dressed as a man.

xxx

There was just few customers, because it was early morning. Elizabeth glanced around her, but she didn't see the owner. She let her gaze to wander on the shelves, which had many kind of perfumes, face powders and lotions. Next she admired dresses which hanged on hangers.

Suddenly she noticed too familiar woman in the back of the store and she was fingering a light blue satin fabric. Elizabeth's eyes turned to angry when she saw Giselle in front of her, in her red dress, as strongly made-up like always. The woman didn't notice Elizabeth. Elizabeth couldn't resist temptation and walked next to Giselle as she said: "Blue doesn't suit you, it's too calm and nice color to your kind of slut, Gis."

Giselle turned around and faced Elizabeth's brown and angry eyes. Giselle stared at her rival for a moment and then familiar, devious smile appeared on her red lips. "Good morning, Elizabeth!"

"Oh please. My morning isn't good anymore because I saw you", Elizabeth answered and suddenly startled when she heard a baby cry. Giselle turned and Elizabeth saw a small baby on the wench's arms. Giselle hushed the child as she swayed her arm and smiled to the baby.

Elizabeth stared at the baby with a stunned look on her face. _Does she have a child?_ She asked the same thing aloud. Giselle laughed and said: "Yes I have, Lizzie."

"Don't call me Lizzie." Elizabeth said grumpily and still stared at the baby. The child was a few months older than Ron.

"This is Gabriel", Giselle introduced her child and raised it so that Elizabeth would see it better. "Light blue suits this cute little boy. I thought about sewing a new shirt to him. His father gave me money for his new clothes." There was something ominous in Giselle's voice that made Elizabeth feel nervous.

"Really interesting", Elizabeth answered and still tried to recover from her shock. "Why on earth you made a child in this kind of horrible situation where you live?"

"I don't need to worry because Gabriel's father takes good care of me and my son." Giselle said calmly and Elizabeth felt more restlessness. _What that bitch tries to hint to me?_

Horrible suspicion appeared in Elizabeth's mind and she felt that her heart turned around in her chest.

_No… That would be too ridiculous…_

"But you are a whore", Elizabeth mocked. "Your child must live with that his whole life. Poor boy!"

"I don't do that anymore", Giselle said sharply and continued to look at the fabric. "Do you know… we have something in common, Elizabeth."

"Don't speak bullshit, Giselle. We are like a night and a day." Elizabeth yelled and the boy in Giselle's arms made a sound and moved his hands in the air. The child had pitch-black hair and dark, sleepy eyes blinked in amazement as they looked around. Elizabeth felt that her heart turned around again and unexplainable fear sneaked into her mind.

"Actually we aren't so different", Giselle said and turned to look at Elizabeth eyes. "Gabriel is a very brave boy. Your son is a brave boy…"

"We have two sons, just for you know." Elizabeth said angrily. She was fed up with that woman and her stupid game.

"They all are very brave boys…" Giselle continued with her sweet voice. Her red lips smiled almost devious smile to Elizabeth and Elizabeth didn't like it at all.

"Get to the point, bitch", Elizabeth snarled. She was losing her nerve.

"I just mean that don't you see something similar in three of them?" Giselle asked as she didn't pay attention to Elizabeth's insulting words. The whore stared at the younger woman exultantly and fixed her son's position in her arms.

Elizabeth could barely talk. _No! It can't be true! Oh God, don't let it be true! Giselle didn't mean it._ But Elizabeth forced the question out of her mouth: "And what do you mean by that?" Elizabeth didn't want to show her fear to that woman, but she knew that it was visible.

Giselle laughed and caressed little Gabriel's soft and black hair. Then the woman looked again at Elizabeth, who swallowed the tears of fear. The words came out of Giselle's mouth proudly and dangerously satisfied: "This little Gabriel-honey here…

...is Jack's son."


	8. Chapter 8

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Elizabeth leaves from Tortuga with very suspicious and dangerous company…

8.

Jack returned back to the tavern as he whistled old pirate melody and walked with cheerful steps across the hall, towards the stairs that led upstairs. He didn't care about the customers of the tavern and almost danced up the stairs. The mistress of the tavern glanced at the Captain and she was amused. _Poor Jack has drunk too much again_, the woman thought as she shook her head and continued cleaning the pints behind the desk.

Jack had gathered his crew, including missing Cotton and ordered every pirate to work at the ship. The deck must shine, the sails must be repaired, cannons must be cleaned and cargo must be full of rum and foodstuff… especially rum.

Jack had also ordered to get Elizabeth's favorite French red wine. And Jack wouldn't mind if they cleaned thoroughly his cabin and change the sheets. Jack wanted the cabin to be ready at eight in the evening, because then the Black Pearl would weigh an anchor and leave to sail on the waves of the Caribbean Sea after a long break.

Jack wanted that the Pearl would be in shape when his wife would step on the deck, after many years. There, where their story had begun. On the ship where they had kissed for the first time, where their first child had been born, where their love had flamed on, unable to fade away anymore.

Jack had big, exactly considered plans for the evening. He was going to use all of his charm to seduce Elizabeth in the Captain's cabin. He was going to coddle his own woman, dance with her, kiss her so much that she would feel dizzy and treat her like a Queen. Treat her like Elizabeth deserved to be treated. Jack intended to tell thousand times how he loved his own little Lizzie, he intended to tell everything that had been left untold along the year. And he wanted at last to spend a night in a same bed with his wife.

Jack barely had patience to wait that he could be together again with the woman he loved. At last the life had some real meaning. Elizabeth had brought that meaning back.

xxx

The ship would leave within two hours. Jack had told the reason for journey and destination to the crew and everybody had wanted to help the couple. Everybody had rushed to their jobs and Jack's exceptionally determined behavior might had also effected on the crew. The Captain had made clear to his crew that they were going to accomplish very important mission and those who disagreed, would be keelhauled as soon as the ship would be at the open sea.

Jack let out satisfied chuckle when everything became organized as he wanted. He had even bought a rose to his beautiful wife. The famous Pirate Captain had made the people stunned as he had made business with the old woman, who sold the flowers at the marketplace. Old woman with a few teeth had almost dropped the rest of her teeth when suddenly the most bravest and charming pirate in all Tortuga had stood in front of her and asked a rose for the most beautiful woman in the Caribbean. The old woman had given the flower to Jack with shaking hands and almost forgot to ask the payment for it.

Jack grinned and hid the long, red rose behind his back and opened the door to face his dear Elizabeth, who waited for him in the room.

Or did she..?

xxx

Elizabeth had lost in Tortuga once again. This time she didn't care about it. The young woman had wandered without destination for hours. She had left from the clothing store without saying a word and heard Giselle's devious laughter behind her.

Elizabeth had walked forward on the dirty streets, unable to stop. She had passed many houses, turned from many street corners, avoided dozen drunks and heard them yelling after her. She had let her legs carry her forward, without caring where she was going to.

Elizabeth felt like a part of her had died inside of her at that moment, when Giselle had told that she and Jack had a child.

Elizabeth's heart was dead and she couldn't even cry, because she felt herself so empty.

The woman had returned to the tavern as she had wandered around in the town and took her possessions with her. She had stared moment at the bed, where she had lain with his deceitful husband, unknowing what Jack really was. A beast! Disgusting devil, worse than any murderer or brute on the earth. The brutes were honestly brutes, but Jack had stared right to his wife's eyes and told seriously that he had never been in bed with Giselle.

Elizabeth had left from the tavern, feeling numb, without looking back.

As she walked forward on the streets, Elizabeth realized that she had been trapped, caused by Jack's clever and cunning talk.

People were able to have sex elsewhere than on the bed... Elizabeth might almost hear Jack to explain something like that. He had never said that he hadn't ever, in any situation, fucked Giselle…

Elizabeth had found explanation and she decided to believe in it. Next she felt choking when she realized how gullible she had been, when she had believed that everything would be alright again. She had believed just because Jack had told that everything would be alright again.

_Oh God, I am so stupid, idiotic chick_, Elizabeth lambasted herself in her mind._ I am so stupid that I should be hanged just because of my stupidity! How could I think that, that horrible bastard could love me! I gave up everything just because of him! I betrayed Will, let down my father's trust and even got him to Jack's side… I spoke up for Jack, when at the same time he was making bastards behind my back. _

_All what they tell about him is true_, Elizabeth thought and the first tear fell on her cheek. _Liar, scammer, scoundrel, thief, rogue, cocksman… Everything is true. He made me fall in love with him, acted his role for 7 long years without I would have never doubted his love and then… he destroyed me…_

_I should have never come here…_

_But how could I have known if I had never come here..? I would have lived in a lie, loved a man who doesn't love me. But the worst thing is that my love for him hasn't disappeared to anywhere! I still love him so much that it hurts me._

_How someone can… is able to hurt another this way..? _

Elizabeth stopped on the street. She couldn't take a single step anymore and let out a loud wail as she took her hand on her mouth. Tears began to fill her eyes and fall on her cheeks with uncontrollably power. Elizabeth squeezed her eyes closed and opened them as her gaze wandered around. Walls of the houses and dusting earth under her feet spun in her fuzzy eyesight. She looked up to the sky that she saw above her, between the houses. Everything spun wildly and she felt sick.

Elizabeth cried out as she collapsed on the street and sank into small bundle as she covered her head like she was afraid that somebody would hit and kick her. Elizabeth cried aloud as her whole body shook. She couldn't stop and she was lucky because there were anyone near on the lonely street, who could take advantage of her distress.

xxx

Jack walked in to the room and put his most charming grin on his face. He expected to find Elizabeth laying on the bed or sitting on a chair, but he had to seek for his wife with his eyes. But still he didn't see the woman.

"Elizabeth?" Jack closed the door behind him and walked forward in the room that felt lonely. He looked around him and the grin disappeared from his face. The bed had been made and it was empty like nobody had slept in there. There was ghostly silence in the room.

"Lizzie? Darlin', I have returned… Where are ye?" Jack frowned and walked around in the room. His steps creaked against the wooden floor.

"Darlin' yer own, old Jack has returned… Where are ye hiding at?" Jack frowned more. _What is this? Does Elizabeth want to play with me?_ "Luv, is this some sort of game..? I can't play with ye if ye don't come out…"

But his wife wasn't there. Not in the whole room. Not even under the bed, where Jack peeked just in case. Jack put the red rose on the table as he was very helpless. One petal fell from the flower and it looked like big blood drop against the table.

_What is happened? Is Elizabeth shopping somewhere? Or making other business? But we talked that we would see each other after a few hours_. Jack tried to find a reason for the missing of his woman.

_Where is Elizabeth?_

Jack began to feel nervous. He took his old and dear tricorne hat out of his head and rubbed his forehead, which was covered with red bandana. _What if something is happened..? If somebody came to this room and..? _Jack didn't even want to think about it. The man looked at the rose on the table and fingered the stem which was covered with sharp thorns. One of the thorns stung his finger and Jack cursed silently. He raised his thumb and saw a reddish pearl on the top of it. The man sucked the finger in his mouth and then shook his hand in the air.

At the same time he saw something on the floor. The light refracted from a little item and gold and reddish glitter reflected to Jack's eyes.

The man crouched on the floor confusedly and the fear took a hold of his throat when he saw the item. Jack picked it up between his long fingers and got up again. He looked at the wide golden ring that had sparkling red stone. There were tiny eastern engravings around the stone. Jack stared at the ring that was quite familiar to him and he couldn't even curse, because he was so stunned. He turned the ring in his hands like he was making sure that it was real. Then he looked inside of it. There had been engraved the names of him and his wife and the date 28.12.1704.

_Why Elizabeth's wedding ring is on the floor and why the woman has disappeared_? Jack looked up from the ring and his night dark eyes glanced around the room. Everything isn't alright. Elizabeth never took the ring out of her finger, not even when she washed laundry or dishes. Not even when she went to swim or bath.

_So why has she neither thrown or dropped the ring on the floor?_

xxx

Elizabeth had gotten up from the street and gasped in the shadow of the house. She had stopped crying and wiped the last tears out of her reddish face. Her eyes had swollen and they smarted. But it wasn't nothing compared to what she felt inside of her. She would have changed the pain that she felt in her soul to any kind of physical pain.

_Jack has a son with that whore._

Though Jack would have been only for just one night with that slut, though the man would never want to see Giselle, still they had a son who would bind them together for the rest of their lives. That was the worst thing in all of this. Elizabeth had imagined that she would have the right to be the first woman in Jack's life, his wife and a mother of his children. And Elizabeth had thought that she was the only woman in Jack's life.

Elizabeth had thought that her love would be enough to change Jack. _How naïve thought!_

At the same time, the reality hit Elizabeth's consciousness_. I must leave alone to get the kids. I won't accept help from Jack, though the man would want to help! I don't want that man near to my sons. It would be all the same if I deny Jack's rights to be a father!_ _He could be the father to that bastard!_ Elizabeth thought and anger rose inside of her like a billowing wave.

_I am able to survive on my own! I have money, I can defend myself and use my feminine side to get to my destination. That would be unpleasant, but if the boys' safety requires it…_

_Nothing matters anymore, nothing else but my two little sons, Alexander and Ron. I will take care of them. I will look after them and raise them so that they will never be that kind of dirty scoundrel like their father. And I will keep them away from Jack's sight, because today that man has given up his rights to meet them and be a part of their lives. _

xxx

Elizabeth had soon pulled herself together. She had wiped her sandy clothes and checked that she still had her money and the sword with her. She had a few apples in her pocket, those would keep the hunger away a day or two and the food was the last thing that she would think now.

She took the hat angrily off her head and let her gorgeous, long hair to flutter freely in the warm air. I wouldn't matter anymore if she walked there as a woman. Nothing mattered anymore.

Elizabeth took a deep breath and began to march towards the docks to leave from this cursed and rot town.

xxx

A little later, as the evening had already began to turn darker and the lanterns had lighten up to the lively pirate harbor, Elizabeth stood in one of the docks and wondered where she should start asking for a lift. She needed a lift to Racoon Cay island, which was located along the course that leaded to Bahama. Many ships would surely go to that direction.

Elizabeth was so in her thoughts that she startled a little when heavy steps thumped against the dock behind her. The woman hadn't time to turn when she heard a voice. It was very low, very manly and hoarse. Sexy too, and it asked from Elizabeth: "What that kind of beautiful lass is doing here at this time of the evening?"

Elizabeth turned and saw a man, who was definitely a pirate and a Captain. The man had same kind of clothing like Jack, but this man had dressed more pompously. He was wearing a dark green coat and under it was a magnificent vest with golden buttons. He had a frilled linen shirt and a medallion around his neck that fell against a sweaty and dirty chest. The man was wearing black trousers and black boots. Gorgeous, decorative pistol rested on his belt, which was the same color as his coat and long scarf. His sword hanged in the sheath against the man's strong but thin haunch. The man was tall and strong in physique and his face was very charismatic and handsome, though he had a few scars in the corner of his eyes and forehead. The eyes were dark and dark brown beard covered his chin and cheeks.

Elizabeth couldn't deny that the man was indeed charming, but in that state of mind, where she was, she couldn't think about it any further. Elizabeth answered: "I am leaving from this nest of sea rats."

"Where are ye going if I may ask?" The man asked and let his gaze fall to Elizabeth's breasts. She did notice it.

_Could this be my lift away from Tortuga?_

"I am going near Bahama", Elizabeth said and noticed that she was smiling a little. She wiped her hair with her hand and suddenly realized to her great horror that she was flirting to that strange man.

"What a coincidence because I am going there too, Mrs..?" The man looked at Elizabeth and grinned the way that painfully reminded Elizabeth of Jack.

"Miss Swann." Elizabeth corrected as she felt her heart tremble when she heard her maiden name and stretched out her hand like elegant lady did as she introduced herself to a gentleman.

The man took a hold of Elizabeth's delicate fingers and touched her hand lightly with his lips as he kept his eyes to Elizabeth's beautiful brown eyes.

"Elizabeth Swann." Elizabeth added.

The man's eyes gleamed with suprise. "Elizabeth Swann, aye?" The man repeated and smiled cunningly. "I thought that yer name is Sparrow and yer not a Miss anymore."

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to be surprised and she asked: "And what made you think that way, Mister..?"

"Captain Ayers. Martin Ayers." The man bowed lightly and touched slightly his dark brown tricorne hat. "Me fine brigantine Mythology and me are for yer use, Mrs-… Miss Elizabeth."

"Mister Ayers, how do you know about me?" Elizabeth asked and raised her chin a bit proudly. Something in the man's eyes made her feel uncomfortable. Martin Ayers wouldn't be trustworthy, though he behaved honorably.

"Mrs. Sparrow, everybody knows the woman who managed to tame Captain Jack Sparrow."

Elizabeth felt the pain cut her from inside and endless sorrow flashed in her eyes. She said quietly: "Tame, you say…"

Captain Ayers looked at her and he was very interested. "Do ye have a marriage crisis?"

"You're asking about things which are not your business", Elizabeth answered angrily and the Captain smiled amusedly. "Besides, I am not married with Jack anymore."

"Really?" The Captain whistled quietly. "How did that happen?"

"I left him." Elizabeth said and looked at the sea as tears burned her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of that man and she continued: "He might not know about it yet, but he will notice before the sun goes down."

xxx

Jack was going to ran out of the room when gasping Ragetti ran inside. The pirate, tall, blond man with wooden eye panted in front of his Captain as Ragetti leaned against his own knees. Apparently the man had run a long distance.

"Well, start to talk, man!" Jack shouted and he couldn't get Elizabeth's ring out of his mind, though the ring was now safe inside of his coat pocket.

"Cap'n…" Ragetti began and got up again. "I saw Mrs. Elizabeth…"

"What!?" Jack shouted and grabbed of the skinny man's shoulders and shook him fiercely. He wanted to know everything about Elizabeth, because it was clear that something had happened to her. "Bloody hell, tell me all!"

"I saw her a moment ago on the east dock… And she…" Ragetti still tried to breathe normally.

"What!?" Jack's eyes were furiously black because of concern.

Ragetti hesitated, because he was afraid that Jack would attack on him as he would heard what Ragetti wanted to tell. "She left with Martin "Sweetheart" Ayers in Mythology a moment ago."

Jack stared at Ragetti with amazement. _What?! What the hell?!_ Jack began to rage and curse aloud and kicked the empty rumbottle on the floor so that it burst into tiny shards. He didn't understand the situation and then he asked confusedly: "Did she left voluntarily with that pathetic asshole?"

"So it seemed like, Cap'n." Ragetti sputtered and took a step back towards the door, just in case.

"Why?! Bloody hell, why!?" Uncertainty and fear squeezed Jack's heart.

Everybody knew in Tortuga that Martin Ayers was a slaver, who robbed ships and kidnapped women from there to his prisoners and then offered them to sale with high price at the world's harbors. A rumor told that he sold concubines to African chieftains, private maid servants to Asian noblemen and luxury whores to European lords. And Jack's wife had left to the sea with that kind of man.

_What is this all about? Why Elizabeth left?_ Jack couldn't understand the reason to her leaving, everything had been fine a few hours earlier and they had made up! But Jack knew too well that Elizabeth was in great danger and he must go to rescue her once again.

Jack didn't lose any more time to wondering. He asked from Ragetti: "Is the Pearl ready?"

"Aye, Cap'n! Almost!" Ragetti told and let out a relieved sigh because he had saved from beating. He pulled himself together and asked impatiently: "We are going after her, aye?"

"Ye are damn right!" Jack said with a low voice and put his hat on his head determinedly. _I am going to find out what the hell is going on! So Elizabeth thinks that she can ran away from me with some idiotic slaver!_

Jack strode out of the room with grim look on his face. Ragetti didn't hesitate but followed after Jack and slammed the door close behind him.

The room was empty and there wasn't anything living anymore than a half-died rose, which beautiful petals had spread on the table.


	9. Chapter 9

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R / NC 17

Summary: Jack saves Liz, but he gets into trouble…

9.

Elizabeth sat on the window seat in the cabin of Mythology and looked at the dark sea between the thick curtains which surely had been made in the era of baroque. It was too dark to see anything else but where the sea ended and the sky began. The stars twinkled their dim light in the sky and Elizabeth didn't know were they by her side and tried to comfort her or just laughed at her.

Elizabeth had walked on the deck of brigantine with Martin Ayers as she had hoped that she would get to Racoon Cay as soon as possible. The Captain had guided her to cozy cabin filled with candles. He had said that she must make herself feel comfortable. Quite soon after that Martin Ayers had disappeared to roar orders to his crew and soon the ship had left the port very quickly.

Elizabeth had opened one of the cabin windows and looked at Tortuga one last time as she had whispered farewell to her husband in the cooling air. The woman had stared the lights of the town and then closed the window and shed a few lonely tears as she had cursed Jack in her mind.

xxx

Martin Ayers had asked what was Elizabeth's favorite drink and the woman had answered that she liked red wine. Ayers had had a pleased grin on his face and said that he had one bottle of excellent wine that Elizabeth should taste right now. Elizabeth couldn't help but smile and she had accepted the offer.

As he had served a glassful of wine to his guest, Ayers had asked Elizabeth to throw her sword and boots away. The man had offered his big bed, covered with satin and velvet, to Elizabeth's use so that she could rest a little, but Elizabeth had declined politely and said that the sword was the only thing in the world that she trusted right now, so she would keep it near. And she wasn't ready to go to a strange man's bed, though she would just sleep.

Elizabeth hadn't liked at all the nasty glances of the crew as she had walked across the deck. It had been like they had weighed her value in gold. She had felt herself like a piece of meat in front of men's impudent gazes and she had been very grateful when she finally was in the safety of the Captain's cabin.

xxx

Elizabeth had been alone awhile now. She felt herself extremely tired and looked around in the small room. The cabin was smaller than Jack's and the whole ship seemed much smaller than the Pearl, though usually the brigantines were the biggest ships that the pirates used. As she had walked across the deck, Elizabeth had noticed that there were less cannons and crew than in Jack's beloved ship.

The cabin was indeed cozy and as pompously decorated as the Captain Ayers had dressed. There was red and orange velvet and green silk everywhere. Eastern lanterns with decorations hanged from the ceiling as the cabin was illuminated with scented candles. The sickeningly sweet smell of incenses floated inside of Elizabeth's nose and she felt herself more languid than before. She felt an irresistible need to go to the middle of fabulous, soft pillows and blankets to fall asleep.

The woman drank the rest of the wine in her glass and yawned. Her eyes felt sore and she didn't want to look outside to the darkness through the window. Elizabeth felt herself extremely languid and heavy. Her eyes closed and her head began to doze.

_Oh, how tired I am_, she thought and got up uneasily from the window seat. Elizabeth wobbled a little and took a hold of a chair as she wondered how she could feel herself so weary and tired.

_If I just rest awhile on that lovely bed and get up immediately when Captain Ayers returns_, Elizabeth thought and wobbled towards the bed. She almost fell against a bureau and one of the candles almost fell down. Elizabeth felt the lights of the candles spinning in her eyesight and she held of the bureau to prevent herself to fall.

_What is happening to me?_ Elizabeth thought distantly. _This isn't normal tiredness…_

At the same time she realized that the wine glass fell from her hand to a soft carpet. It didn't break down and the woman bent to pick it up and suddenly fell uncontrollably on the floor. She mumbled something as she tried to turn on her side. But Elizabeth didn't have strength to move and so she closed her eyes as she was unable to rise up.

xxx

Jack stood near the bowsprit, above the woman and the bird – figurehead and looked forward with his telescope. The night had fallen on the sea and the ship sailed with the help of the starlight. Fortunately the crew on the Pearl had seen where the Mythology had left from the port of Tortuga and now the Pearl sailed behind her with all sails opened. Jack knew that at any minute he would see Ayers' ship in the horizon.

Right before when the ship's navigator saw the ship ahead from the main mast, Jack yelled: "There is that lousy boat!"

The men bustled and rushed to the rail as they heard the Captain's voice. "Jack, what shall we do?!" They heard Gibbs' voice.

Jack climbed back to the deck and then said with strict voice to the crew that stared at him: "Of course we are goin' closer! Hoist the colors and blast a warnin' cannon fire! But not to the hull, Elizabeth is in that ship. Huge splash should prevent him not to do anything stupid…"

xxx

Martin Ayers smiled as he opened his cabin door. He and his crew were totally unaware of the black ship that sailed closer to them. Ayers was pleased to the course of his ship that would lead them to Panama and he thought about going to see his guest, charming Mrs. Sparrow. Ayers walked inside of his illuminated cabin and had satisfied grin on his face as he saw the woman lying on the floor.

_I see that me Chinese special wine has done its duty. Excellent…_

The Captain of Mythology walked closer and circled Elizabeth like an eagle circles a prey and then he bent down.

"Ye are really beautiful…" Ayers had wide grin on his face that revealed the yellow teeth and he wiped Elizabeth's long hair out of her eyes. The woman didn't react to the touch and the man lifted the decorated wine glass onto the table next to him.

"I will get a lot of money of ye at Panama. I already know buyer to ye, very nice man… but first I need to test what kind of goods I'm selling. Otherwise I would be a lousy businessman…" Ayers laughed at his ingenuity and put a hand under Elizabeth and raised her to his arms. The pirate got up and carried Elizabeth to the bed as he then threw the woman roughly on the bed. Elizabeth let out a quiet wail through her deep drug sleep, but she didn't wake up.

Martin Ayers looked at the woman that lay on the bed and he grinned more as he took off his hat and the green coat. He put his sword with its sheath and his pistol to the bedside table and then climbed slowly onto the bed, next to Elizabeth. Soon Ayers managed to undress Elizabeth's coat and her weapon belt and threw them almost despising on the floor.

"Ye don't need these, sweetheart… Women shouldn't swordfight…" Ayers mumbled by himself and then caressed Elizabeth's breasts through the woman's linen shirt. At that very moment a wet smudge appeared on to the shirt.

"What the hell..?" Ayers cursed, but then realized what it was all about. _This little slut seems to be a mother_, Ayers thought. _A fresh one… Well, it doesn't slow me down when I have this kind of gorgeous mare. It's just good thing that she is experienced._ The man grinned amusedly to his thoughts and grabbed of Elizabeth's shirt with his right hand.

He ripped Elizabeth's shirt open and stared the sight pleasedly.

xxx

The cannon was ignited at the Black Pearl and soon it send from its dark core a black ball towards the Mythology. The shot hit close of the brigantine's stern, right where it had been aimed and it made the water wave wildly as it rocked the ship.

At the Captain's cabin, Ayers fell on Elizabeth, who lay on the bed with bare breasts. The woman didn't even woke up to the noise of the cannon, just lay on her back as she was unable to prevent that what Ayers was going to do to her.

Martin Ayers cursed the rudest swears that he knew and got up quickly from the bed, shaking his head and then rushed stumbling out of his cabin. _That slut will get her treatment later, because now I must find out who the hell set the cannon fire to me ship!_

"It's the Black Pearl!" the crew told Ayers as soon as he ran to the deck. "It has hoisted the colors and attacks, Cap'n!"

"What the hell?!" Ayers cursed and suddenly realized that his trousers were open. He had almost managed to undress them. The man fastened his trousers and rushed to the upper deck. At the same time second ball hit on the water, right next to them. The ship rocked wildly once again and they could smell the gunpowder in the night air. Ayers heard swearing and chaotic shouting.

"They just warn us!" Ayers shouted over the noise as he tried to calm down the situation and kept his hold of the rail as the rocking calmed. The smoke that the cannons of the Black Pearl had let out flew above them like hazy warning sign.

"The ship is much faster than ours!" Ayers' old, bearded first mate shouted and ran quickly to the upper deck. "They have more cannons and men and shallow on the draft. We can't get away!"

"What the hell they want from us?!" Helmsman yelled and kept his hold on the wheel with his callous hands. "Who the hell was that bitch that ye brought here, Cap'n?! I knew that she would bring back luck to us all!"

"She is the wife of the Captain of the Black Pearl", Ayers explained and walked back and forth like the best warlord. "But that little slut told me that they aren't married anymore."

"Well, Sparrow seems to disagree." First mate said and at the same time they saw how the Black Pearl began to sail next to them. The cannon hatches of the black ship had been opened and it was ready to shoot them. The crew at the Mythology was unprepared and they couldn't return the fire.

xxx

Jack fixed the position of his tricorne hat and walked to the rail as the lapels of his coat fluttered in the night air. He squeezed his dark eyes grumpily and gnashed his teeth as he prepared to discuss with the captain of the opposite side. Jack could be very formidable and grand if he wanted and needed to do that. _Real Captain_, many of his crew thought proudly at that moment.

Jack pulled his sword threatfully from its sheath and raised it towards the Mythology. "Ayers!" Jack shouted and saw the other captain standing unarmed at the upper deck of the brigantine. "Ye have something there that belongs to me!"

Ayers walked to the rail of his ship and tried to look confident. He had the reputation of a hated man at Tortuga and he was always powerless in the battles he happened to end up. His men were inexperienced and his ship was quite slightly equipped. All their money that they got from the slave trade was spent to booze and women. That's why Ayers tried to avoid interest in other pirates, not to mention the Royal Navy. Still Ayers grinned viciously and shouted his answer: "I have understood that she isn't yer property anymore, Sparrow!"

Jack frowned to that kind of talk and then shouted: "If ye don't return me wife to me ship in five minutes, I will order me crew to attack on ye and we will sink yer whole lousy slaveboat as soon as Elizabeth is back to where she belongs!"

"I drew a conclusion by her talk", Ayers continued his egotistical irritating. "She doesn't feel anymore that she belongs by yer side. I don't know what ye have done, Jack-mate, but Elizabeth was happy when she was able to get away from ye as far as possible!"

Jack's crew turned to look at the Captain as they waited for his reaction. Ayers' words had make Jack very thoughtful for a moment. The Pirate Captain clearly wondered what Martin Ayers meant. Jack didn't have an idea about the conversation that Elizabeth and Giselle had had. But Ayers' words didn't make him feel happy at all.

But soon Jack said as he hid skillfully the misery that the words of the other Captain had made: "Ye know nothin' about me and me wife's business and now I will come to get her. If ye have somethin' against it, ye will end up at the bottom of the sea." Jack turned to look at his crew. "Ragetti, keep that clown in yer aim and I will go to get Liz with Pintel and Gibbs."

"Aye!" The men agreed like from one mouth and Pintel and Gibbs rushed next to their Captain with pistols ready, to walk to the deck of the Mythology. Ragetti and the other men raised their pistols towards the other pirates and kept a few cannons ready to shoot the ship if somebody decided to try something stupid.

xxx

Jack and his first mate and also his boatswain were allowed to walk freely on the ramp that had been set between the ships and soon the men stood on the deck of Mythology. Jack glanced up to Ayers and saw him to lean against the wheel with displeased look on his face.

"So ye thought that ye could sell me woman to some clown that wears a wig." Jack said egotistically to the other Captain.

"As I said, Jack, she isn't yer woman anymore." Ayers sighed like he would be sorry for him.

Jack felt his anger to really awaken. _What the hell that idiot tries to splutter all the time?! Why Lizzie wouldn't be me woman..? _Still he said calmly: "I don't know how did ye got that in yer head, but…"

"She told me so, Jack", Martin interrupted arrogantly. "Why else she would have left with me if she is yer faithful wife?"

"She is me wife!" Jack snarled as he emphasized his words and walked back and forth on the deck. Gibbs and Pintel were watchful next to him.

"What the hell ye have done to her?" Jack asked from Ayers.

"Nothin'… She's just… restin' in me cabin." Ayers and some of the men of the Mythology laughed. Jack scowled at them extremely angrily and looked at the cabin door. Jack growled and ordered his men to stay in the guard outside. The pirate strode across the deck and then wrenched the cabin door open.

xxx

At the inside of the cabin, Jack smelt the sickening stink of the candles and incenses and he walked slowly forward. The room was thoroughly decorated with eastern colors and many luxury items filled shelves and bureaus. Candles spread smoke and lights of the lanterns fluttered as the ship swung. They made strange shadows on curtains of the bed and Jack couldn't help but say: "Jeez, what a little brothel…"

At the same time Jack saw a woman with blond hair lying on the bed. Jack recognized his wife immediately and he didn't hesitate but rushed across the floor to the bed as he yelled: "Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth didn't answer and when Jack saw his wife lying there with her shirt completely open, round breasts bare, the lust was the last thing that came to his mind. _Has Elizabeth allowed that clown to seduce her?!_ Jack squeezed his hands into fists and his dark eyes stared at Elizabeth angrily. _Has Elizabeth allowed that idiot to undress her?_

But why his wife lay so quietly? Jack bent closer and touched Elizabeth's shoulder. "Lizzie?" Jack shook the woman lightly. The anger and fear caused by her possible unfaithfulness crisscrossed in his mind. Jack didn't know which one of those feelings was stronger. "Lizzie? What the hell are ye doing?"

The woman didn't answer.

The cold fear pierced Jack's heart and the man rose to sit on the bed. He pulled Elizabeth to lie in his arms and shook the woman again as he shouted: "Elizabeth! Bloody hell, what's the matter with ye?!" Jack felt that his breathing quickened more than before.

Elizabeth made a quiet sound and mumbled something incomprehensible. The woman's eyes half-opened, but they didn't see anything. She was completely relaxed like a ragdoll in her husband's arms. Jack was terrified and bent down. He smelt Elizabeth's lips and touched them with his own. Lizzie's lips had a strange smell and flavor. And Jack recognized it quite well: the Opium.

"That fuckin'…" Jack growled by himself and suddenly he realized the whole situation. He felt his anger to boil over and he couldn't prevent the growl rising up from his throat. He squeezed his hands into fists once again and looked at Elizabeth's linen shirt. It had been clearly ripped open, not opened. Jack covered his wife's breasts and then caressed Elizabeth's blond hair. The woman was in deep sleep… and she would be for long time. The Opium was very powerful, sedative drug.

Jack was able to imagine what would have happened in the Captain's cabin of Mythology if the cannon fire from the Pearl hadn't interrupted Martin Ayers. _Fuckin' recreant pig!_ Jack thought. _He made Elizabeth unconscious with opium and then tried to rape her! What a real man! _Jack felt urge to run to the deck right away and then hang Ayers on the deck of his own lousy ship and in front of his lousy crew. But first he would have to get Elizabeth into the safety of the Pearl.

But Ayers wouldn't get away from this!

Jack threw his weapon belt from his shoulder and undressed his long coat. He raised Elizabeth to sit and uphold her from her back with his hand. With his other hand Jack wrapped his coat around the woman and threw his weapon belt back to his shoulder. Then he grabbed his wife into his arms.

Suddenly Jack noticed Elizabeth's coat and old leather sheath with the sword. Jack felt twinge in his heart as he saw his wife's sword glimpsed from the sheath. Jack knew that Elizabeth would have defended herself if she hadn't been treacherously drugged. Brave little Elizabeth could use a sword as easily as the men, maybe better, but what the woman could have done when she had drunk the drink that had been offered to her.

_But what the hell made Elizabeth to get in this ship?_ Jack still couldn't understand the situation and he bent to pick up Elizabeth's items with him. _It doesn't matter why Elizabeth tried to run away me. I will take Elizabeth away from this ship. We can solve our problems later if we even have them. Me think that we don't have any, but maybe Elizabeth disagrees. Why on else she left voluntarily with that slimy moron?_

_Women are strange, _Jack thought as he walked out of the cabin with Elizabeth in his arms. _But this doesn't make any sense at all._

xxx

Gibbs and Pintel protected Jack and Elizabeth with weapons in their hands as they watched every move of the Mythology men when the Captain walked across the brigantine's deck towards his own ship. Elizabeth lied unconsciously in her husband's arms, wearing his blue-gray coat, honey blond hair down and beautiful eyes closed. She didn't know anything about the dangerous situation around her that actually she had caused.

Jack had firm hold of the Elizabeth's body and he hoped that anything that would put Elizabeth in danger wouldn't happen. Jack was unarmed and Elizabeth in his arms he wouldn't be able to do anything if somebody decided to attack on them.

With the heart beating wildly, Jack went over the ship's rail and began to walk with steady steps on the ramp that led over the black and watery chasm between the Black Pearl and the Mythology. Jack kept his face calm, but he couldn't hide his anger.

Ayers glared at the woman in Jack's arms and he was clearly sour when he missed the great deal. But he didn't dare to say anything anymore. It would be useless began to protest, Jack Sparrow's face was so angry. Ayers had too few men, but still it annoyed to allow the woman like Elizabeth to leave freely. Ayers kept his mouth closed, but stared Jack and Elizabeth with pissed look on his face.

xxx

At the Black Pearl, a few men rushed towards Jack and they took Elizabeth carefully to the deck and carried her quickly in the safety of the Captain's cabin. Jack jumped on to the familiar deck and waved Gibbs and Pintel to leave Mythology. Soon the men stood next to him and both crews stared at each other from their own ships. Ragetti still kept Ayers in his aim, so that the crew could take the ramp off between the ships.

"Ayers, ye made a bad mistake when ye tried to rape me wife." Jack said and sighed deeply like he would wonder what he would say next. He was so angry that he didn't know how he should be. He felt anxiety squeezing his heart and the image of his darling Elizabeth lying helplessly on the strange man's bed with ripped shirt, spun in his mind.

Jack raised his dangerous dark gaze to Ayers and said: "I cannot let ye get away after somethin' like that."

Ayers with his crew stared at Jack and the men at the Mythology began to mutter fearfully. They even couldn't dare to move. Then Martin Ayers walked slowly right next to the rail and said: "Jack, I…" They could hear pure fear in his voice. He was coward after all. "I am sorry that I tried to do that to her…"

"Why I don't believe ye, pathetic fool", Jack growled and fingered his pistol in his hand. "Ye only say that so ye could continue yer job. After all it's profitable business!"

Jack stared at Ayers for a moment and then his dark eyelids descended and his gaze turned to speculative. Jack voice sounded sinister when he said with very low voice, but so audible that they all heard it: "Everybody at Tortuga would be satisfied if Mythology never appears to there again. Not to mention, ye Martin… mate…"

xxx

They could almost touch the silence. Only the sea that never rested waved around the ships. Jack squeezed the handle of his sword with his left hand and everybody waited what he would say next. Gibbs swallowed quietly next to his Captain and waited for orders. He hadn't seen Jack so angry for many times during their friendship.

"Sink that lousy boat and that wretched rapist that pretends to be a Captain." Jack suddenly ordered. He stared at Martin Ayers terrified eyes. There was no victory or bloodlust in Jack's eyes. Jack's eyes were steady and determined.

The men at the Mythology and at the Black Pearl stared at him speechlessly.

_Jack usually doesn't do this_, Gibbs thought and he sweated because he was so nervous. But he didn't envy Ayers. Or anyone that tried to hurt Elizabeth Sparrow. Everybody, including Gibbs, had heard of those two men that had kidnapped Elizabeth at Tortuga many years ago and they had been founded dead many days later.

Jack turned to look at Gibbs and said with low voice: "Do as I said, as soon as we are a bit farther." Jack glanced at Mythology and then said to Gibbs: "Let's go."

After he had said that Jack turned his back and began to walk towards his cabin, without caring about the chaos that burst at the enemy's ship. They heard swearing and terrified screams when brigantine tried to escape and the crew tried desperately be saved from the destruction.

At the same time Gibbs barked orders at the Black Pearl: "Make sail and raise the anchor! All cannons ready! Ye know what to do!"

Jack took a hold of his cabin doorhandle and he was going to open the door when he heard a shot in the air. Jack froze to his place and a moment it felt like the time had stopped. He heard his own breathing louder than the yelling of his crew, his heart beat faster in his chest and the beating emanated somewhere to the left side of his upper body. He squeezed the doorhandle in his hand and he heard the rings in his right hand screeching against the metallic doorhandle. Jack's eyes saw only the dark wood of the door, its seams and the places where the branches used to grow.

Then it came… the pain. Nerve-wracking, burning pain that squeezed him with the merciless power.

xxx

Everybody at the Black Pearl fell silent and looked at Mythology, seeking the shooter with their eyes. Did the crew at the Mythology have a nerve to begin to shoot them, to avoid the certain death?! Apparently they had!

They saw the Mythology's first mate standing at the upper deck with the pistol in his hand, pointing somewhere towards the deck of the Pearl. Old man with tangled beard lowered his pistol as he grinned wickedly and put the pistol in his belt. Then he disappeared somewhere in the middle of the men who ran in panic at the brigantine, dashing against each other, shouting and swearing, trying to get the ship move.

Gibbs and the others didn't care if the brigantine was going to get away. They turned to look back at the Pearl's deck, towards Jack. To their horror they saw the Captain leaning against his cabin door and he breathed deeply. The pirate's white linen shirt had stained red from the armpit and the fabric dripped blood on the deck of the Pearl.

Before anyone managed to do anything, Jack collapsed against the door and from there to the deck on his side. Jack hit his head against the wood and he closed his eyes. And though his crew began to shout and ran towards him, Jack didn't hear them anymore.

He just lied there immovable, without caring that Ayers with his men tried to escape, without caring that Elizabeth was now safe…

without caring about anything at all.


	10. Chapter 10

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Liz has mood shifts…

10.

Elizabeth woke to the voice. It was deep, familiar man's voice and it came somewhere in the middle of the hazy humming. It wasn't Jack, but somebody very familiar person.

"Mrs. Elizabeth..?" The voice was worried. "Please wake up, Mrs. Elizabeth. The Captain needs ye…"

Elizabeth couldn't dare or have the strength to open her eyes right away, because she felt herself confused and helpless. Everything was strange and frightening and she just wanted to fall asleep again. Still Elizabeth wanted to know who talked to her and soon she forced her heavy eyelids to open and blinked lazily.

First she didn't see anything else but dim, reddish orange light through the haze. She lied on her back on something soft. _In a bed? Whose bed?_ Suddenly Elizabeth wished that she would be at home, at the windy beach of Jamaica, in her little home. She wished that she would be in her own bed and Jack would sleep next to her. Elizabeth reached with her hand to her right side, where Jack always had slept, but her fingers only met the soft velvet.

_Where am I?_ Was the first question in the woman's mind. _What has happened to me? What is dream and what is real?_

Suddenly Elizabeth became frightened when dark figure bent over her. The woman moved restlessly on the bed and blinked her eyes. The haze slowly disappeared and Elizabeth saw the worried face of Joshamee Gibbs, the first mate of the Black Pearl, in front of her.

"Thank God, Mrs. Elizabeth", Gibbs shouted and rushed to put another pillow under her head. "We thought that ye would never wake up!"

"Joshamee", Elizabeth whispered with hoarse voice and suddenly felt the headache began to hammer her temples. "What has happened?" The woman squeezed her eyes close because of the pain. _Oh God, how my head hurts!_

Gibbs sighed heavily and said: "Ye drank poppy tea at that ship. Ye must feel sick?"

"I drank what?"

"Opium, ma'am."

"Why I..? What..?" Elizabeth stammered and suddenly everything returned in her mind. The fight with Jack, reconciliation, conversation with Giselle, Port of Tortuga, Martin Ayers, the cabin of Mythology and… that wine! That was all what she could remember.

Elizabeth felt herself confused. She stared at Gibbs' face and the old man looked back at her with sorry look on his face.

"If I was at that ship, how can I be here and talk to you, Joshamee? Where am I?" Elizabeth sputtered.

"At the Pearl, of course." She heard the answer.

Elizabeth turned her eyes and even one glance told her that she was in the cabin of the Black Pearl. Everything was just like before. The bed where she lied and what was covered with red velvet, was at the same place. She also saw Jack's old desk that had maps and half-burned candles on it. There were more empty rumbottles around the cabin. Elizabeth turned her gaze to the other direction and noticed the burning candles on the bedside table and the windows of the stern as the pitch-black darkness was the only thing that she could see. It was night.

_How long I have been here?_ Elizabeth wondered. _And how I have ended up in here?_ She asked the same questions from Gibbs. As Elizabeth looked at the familiar room and the memories filled the woman's mind, Gibbs said: "Ye have slept almost one day. We came… Jack came to get ye out of there. Ye were unconscious when he found ye at that man's cabin. Jack took ye with him and… return back to the ship."

At the same time Gibbs seemed very sad.

"Jack?" Elizabeth asked with amazement and the phrase "_Gabriel is Jack's son_" returned back to her mind. Elizabeth felt that her anger awoke once again. _Cursed Jack! Why that scoundrel began to follow me?!_

Gibbs interrupted Elizabeth's thoughts as he said: "Jack went after ye when he heard that ye were at that slaver's ship."

"Slaver?" Elizabeth repeated more confusedly. Apparently she had missed lot.

"I'm sorry but Martin Ayers tricked ye. He was going to sell ye…" Gibbs explained and he was really sorry for her as he scratched his sideburns. "He has… he has quite bad reputation, though he is a pirate…"

"W…what?" Elizabeth let out terrified shout.

"And apparently he also tried to…" Gibbs mumbled. "Rape ye." Elizabeth stared at Gibbs with horrified look on her face. "But Jack managed to prevent that…"

_Oh my God!_ Elizabeth thought as she was horrified. _Did I walk voluntarily to that kind of danger?! Oh God, what I was thinking? But how could I have known..? I was happy when I was be able to get out from Tortuga and I was satisfied to Martin Ayers' offer. I wouldn't have guessed that the Captain of Mythology was going to… rape and sell me?!_ That made shivers to Elizabeth's skin and she felt herself cheap. _Did they specify my price? How disgusting…_

"And of course Jack wouldn't want to let something like that happen to ye. After all, ye are our Captain's own woman." Gibbs continued with the smile on his face and once again Elizabeth saw the sadness in the man's eyes.

Elizabeth was too confused to care about it. She whispered: "If Jack loves me so, then why he…" Elizabeth fell silent and felt the returning of the pain. "Why does he hurt me so much..?"

The woman felt tears rise to her eyes again. For a moment she had hoped that Gabriel, the Jack's son, would just be a bad dream. She had hoped that all this horrible course of events had just been a silly nightmare. She had even hoped that Jack wouldn't be gone and Elizabeth would wake next to her husband and she could tell him how terrible and long dream she had seen. And Jack would comfort her and tell that everything was just a silly dream. But everything was real and there was no going back. Elizabeth must get used to it, in one way or another.

"What ma'am means?" Gibbs asked confusedly as he once again interrupted Elizabeth's thoughts. "Jack saved ye from that man!"

Suddenly Elizabeth's face turned very angry and frustrated and she said sharply: "Don't you know about Jack and Giselle? And the little outcome of their love…" Elizabeth swallowed her tears and she would have wanted to hit her fists against the bed or get up and start to throw Jack's rumbottles and stuff around the cabin. She wanted to destroy something that belonged to Jack, like the man had destroyed her heart.

Gibbs was at least astonished and shouted with wide eyes: "What the hell?! No, I really didn't know!"

"Well, now you do." Elizabeth said and closed her eyes as she was upset. One tear escaped on to her cheek.

"I don't believe it, Mrs. Elizabeth…" Gibbs said with hoarse voice. The fact had surprised him completely.

"Don't call me Mrs. Elizabeth," Elizabeth said angrily and pressed herself deeper inside of the pillow. She would have wanted to cry alone and she blinked her eyes. "Don't you see that I threw away that cockman's ring which I carried for 7 years!"

"Mrs. Elizabeth, please…"

"I'm not his wife anymore!" Elizabeth turned her head angrily and the headache only turned worse. She closed her eyes again and more big tears fell between her eyelids. She had never felt herself as miserable as she felt right now.

"I don't believe that Jack would have done anything like that, though he likes to be after beautiful women." Gibbs said quietly.

"Well, I'm sure that he likes!" Elizabeth shouted and winced because of the pain. She massaged her temples as she frowned and then wiped her tears. "Even so much that he will shag anything that reminds a woman!"

Elizabeth's voice rose dangerously and Gibbs began to move nervously on the edge of the bed, where he sat. Apparently the old man thought that it would be wise to be careful near an angry woman.

"Elizabeth, please… Jack is just that kind of man, who drivels this and that to the women…" Gibbs tried to speak up for Jack. "He just has that kind of habit, but I'm sure that he certainly hasn't…"

Elizabeth lost her temper and yelled as she interrupted Gibbs: "Oh, he's just driveling! Maybe things like: Hi Gis, shall we go to the upstairs and cheat me wife and make one bastard at the same time?!"

"Elizabeth, please stop…"

Elizabeth breathed angrily and stared somewhere towards the cabin's window and refused to listen Gibbs. _Why that old drunkard thinks that he knows about every woman of Jack! Or maybe Gibbs tries to make me believe that Giselle lied. Then it is going to be easier to Jack to defend himself, as soon as I get to speak with him._

"He loves ye like crazy, Elizabeth", Gibbs said and sounded a little desperate. "The whole crew at this ship knows it! Everybody at Tortuga knows it and the whole Caribbean knows!"

"Yeah right! It's strange that everybody else knows about it except me!" Elizabeth shoted as her voice trembled. She began to cry again.

"Jack has never hidden his love to you", Gibbs said softly, but he didn't dare to comfort Elizabeth. "He has always talked, at least to me, quite open-heartedly about ye." Gibbs tried to think of right words. "He almost died for ye, doesn't that tell about love..?"

Elizabeth turned her tearful face to Gibbs and asked between the sobbing: "What do you mean?"

Gibbs sighed and told: "Martin Ayers is dead, Mythology is at the bottom of the sea and we are sailing towards Racoon Cay. Just as Jack has ordered."

Those words made Elizabeth smile a little. _I'm going to see my children again!_ But then she turned serious again._ Did Jack give an order to kill Ayers and sink his ship? Because of me? Has Jack gotten into trouble because of me?_

"What do you mean that Jack almost died?" Elizabeth felt concerned. She realized that she would always be worried about Jack. She still loved Jack and maybe that feeling would never die or at least it would take eternity to disappear. Elizabeth sighed deeply and looked at Gibbs.

"Of course we ended up in battle with that bloody Mythology", Gibbs told and his voice was low. The man looked somewhere outside from the window of the cabin like he would seek for help. "Jack got ye in the safety, but… he was shot when he was going to the cabin to see ye."

Elizabeth felt that her heart bounced uncontrollably to her throat and all the way back to the bottom of her stomach. Suddenly the woman forgot everything. The fight at Tortuga, Jack gone for one year, Giselle's talking and Gabriel. For a moment Elizabeth even forgot her own children and jump to sit on the bed. The woman took a hold of Gibbs arm and cried: "Jack!" The tears began to fall on her tearful face.

"He's alive, ma'am…" Gibbs calmed and grabbed of Elizabeth's hand and put a little smile on his face as he saw Elizabeth's big, brown eyes which were full on concern. The woman stared at him and cried. Gibbs said with steady voice: "He's alive, Elizabeth!"

"Oh God!" Elizabeth shouted and took a hand on her face. She couldn't stop crying. "Thank God…"

"But he sleeps deep sleep and the fever is high…" Gibbs told. "The shot didn't go in, but it scratched his side, right next to the heart and lungs. That was close…"

"Oh God, Joshamee." Elizabeth sputtered and couldn't say anything else. Her heart beat franticly because of shock.

"He will survive. That devil has survived from more worse than that…" Gibbs said and Elizabeth looked at him. "He has to survive." Gibbs laughed unhappily and Elizabeth felt cold. The woman loose her hold of Gibbs' arm and looked helplessly around her.

Gibbs looked for a moment at Elizabeth and the woman's helpless face and then said: "But loosin' you is the thing that he will not survive."

"Joshamee…" Elizabeth said uneasily and wiped her face again.

"Don't believe that bitch Giselle, it can't be true…"

"Yes it can and it is…" Elizabeth said quietly and very tiredly. "I wish that I could change that, but I have seen the child myself and he is just like Jack."

Gibbs was so astonished that he couldn't answer anything anymore. He was quiet for a moment and then said: "I'm sure that ye want to see Jack..? He was awake in the morning and asked for ye."

"Yes, I want." Elizabeth whispered immediately. "As crazy as it sounds, yes I want to see him…"

xxx

After the accident, they had taken the Captain under the deck, where the surgeon had managed to stop the bleeding. The man had cleaned Jack's wound as best as he could with the distilled beverage and then he had sutured a few stitches. In spite of it all, the deep wound that the shot left under Jack's armpit, had began to get infected and the Captain had high fever. The surgeon realized that there wasn't any medicine except water caltrop and tea that had been made from barks of the willow. The man had made medicine drink from these as he had also added some rum and gave it to Jack. When he had been done, he had left the Captain to sleep in the coolness of the hold.

Elizabeth walked with Gibbs across the darkness of the hold and soon saw Jack in front of her, who lied in the middle of candlelight circle. The man's shirt was gone and around the strong upper body was bandage that covered the infected, fresh wound. The Captain slept on his back in the shabby bed and Jack rested his hand on his chest. Somebody had taken off his bandada and feverish sweat glistened on his forehead.

Elizabeth felt that her heart ached because of compassion and she totally forgot that she should be angry.

"Oh, Jack…" She said quietly and rushed to sit next to Jack. Elizabeth touched gently Jack's hand, but it didn't grab of her hand like it used to do. Elizabeth sobbed and caressed Jack's sweaty hair and forehead that had light scar which went through his eyebrow.

"Elizabeth, I am at the deck if ye need me." Gibbs said discreetly and stepped farther from the couple as he left them alone.

"Alright," Elizabeth whispered and she couldn't turn her gaze away from Jack's tanned and calm face. "Thank you, Joshamee…"

"No need to thank, ma'am… Do what ye can so that he will be alright again."

Gibbs began to walk back to the deck and noticed that Elizabeth hadn't forbidden him to call her madam.

xxx

Elizabeth woke when she felt that something moved under her head. The woman startled up and realized that she had fallen asleep against Jack. It was still night, because there was dark in the hold. It was also quieter than usually, so the crew must be sleeping.

Elizabeth looked at Jack, who moved his long, springy fingers, then turned his head and opened his eyes. Elizabeth felt unexplainable good feeling when Jack's dark brown eyes looked at her between the kohl-lined eyelids. The woman couldn't prevent a small smile to appear on her lips and she bent towards the man as she whispered: "Hi, Jack…"

Jack stared at her for a moment like he still would be dreaming and then he whispered: "Hi, Princess…"

Elizabeth's smile widened and at that moment she couldn't remember that she was angry. She just understood that the man she loved was saved from the death. She was just happy that Jack was alive and talked to her. When Gibbs had told that somebody had shot Jack, Elizabeth had thought for a moment that she could never see or talk with Jack. She hasn't thought at all that she had left Jack and they wouldn't meet each other again anyway.

Elizabeth didn't want to think that now and she whispered softly: "You said that I wasn't a Princess anymore…"

"Really..?" Jack moved little on his bed and groaned as he put a hand on the bandage. "Well, then… Hi, Queen."

"Does it hurt?" Elizabeth asked and took a green pint from the bedside table. Pint was full with medicine and rum. "Drink little from this…"

"I don't want any nauseous liquid." Jack sighed and grimaced.

Elizabeth's face turned determined. "But it's medicine."

"I will survive without it, darlin'."

"Jack, it has rum too…" Elizabeth coaxed and she couldn't help but smile a little amused. Just like when she tried to get Alexander to drink his medicine when he was sick. But back then she used honey, not rum.

"Well, if that's the case…" Jack said and tried to take the pint from Elizabeth's hand, but the movement hurt him too much. The man lied on his back and seemed frustrated. Elizabeth sighed and said: "You must rest and stay still, Jack."

The woman raised Jack's head gently and put the pint on his lips, so that he could drink a few swigs.

"Ugh, this hasn't even seen rum…" Jack grimaced and turned his head away from the pint.

"I said that it's medicine."

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment and then she said as she fingered her blond hair: "I heard that you had saved me from that ship. Thank you…"

Jack turned to look at the woman and raised his left hand towards Elizabeth as he said: "Of course I rescued ye. As soon as I heard that ye had left with that scumbag."

"Jack, I…" Elizabeth tried to say and ashamed her stupidity. "I didn't know that Ayers was a slaver… let alone that he was going to sell me… or hurt me." Elizabeth sighed deeply. "I never wanted that something bad would happen to you."

"Ye couldn't know that, luv." Jack said softly and caressed Elizabeth's cheek with his hand. "Why did ye leave like that? I have thought about it over and over again, but I can't figure any good reason."

Elizabeth got up quickly and her face had turned withdrawn. She had been terrified when she had heard that Jack was hurt, but the man seemed to stay alive. Suddenly Elizabeth's anger returned, because it was never disappeared, just faded in the back of her mind.

The woman stared at Jack's eyes and the man frowned. Jack raised his hand and tried to touch his wife's cheek, but Elizabeth moved farther.

"What's the matter with ye?" Jack asked and groaned because of the pain. "What all this means, Liz? Why I heard from some fuckin' asshole that ye are pleased when ye get away from me? Why I found yer ring on the tavern's floor?" Jack stared with his dark eyes at Liz as he wanted answers.

"Don't make a fool of me, Jack", Elizabeth said and suddenly her voice was very cold. "I thought that you are dying and that was the reason why I came to see you. But I see that you will survive from that… and you can return back to them." Elizabeth lowered her head as she couldn't prevent the tears to fall again.

xxx

Jack lied on the bed and seemed like Elizabeth had just hit his head with the firewood. Dark eyes looked stunnedly at Elizabeth. The stun of Jack turned to grimace when the pain waved inside of him.

"What?" Jack shouted when he managed to speak again. "Return back to who? What the hell are ye talking about, Lizzie?"

"Don't call me…" Elizabeth sobbed.

"I know, I know! I can't call ye 'Lizzie'! What the hell is going on?" Jack barked and shouted because his wound didn't allow him to feel so strong emotions. Then he asked with hoarse voice: "What have I done?"

"Did you say goodbyes to them before you left after me?" Elizabeth asked and raised her upset and sad eyes to Jack.

"Who? What are ye talkin' about?" Jack was taken aback. "Have you become crazy?"

"Yes I am, because I let you to make me believe that you love me." Elizabeth said with low voice and stared at Jack.

"What..?" Jack shouted and looked back to the woman. "I do love ye! Why do ye doubt it again?"

Elizabeth sighed and covered her face with her hands. "You should have told that you have a family at Tortuga, so that I would have disappeared from your life. I… I just don't understand…" The woman's voice broke.

Jack stared at her speechlessly.

"I don't understand why I and Alex wasn't enough for you… Maybe I would have understood that you had shared a night with that woman when you were drunk, but you… you have… made a child with that woman. Oh, Jack… why did you have to… do this to me..?" Elizabeth's voice disappeared in the middle of the crying.

Jack stared at the woman as he didn't understand any of her talking. The man was quiet for a moment and just stared his wife's crying and shaking body. Then Jack said with astonished voice: "I don't know what this is all about… but…"

"Giselle!" Elizabeth yelled with red face. "It is all about that whore! And the fact that you lied to me!"

"What the he…?" Jack tried to say and the pain felt strong in his wound. He couldn't say anything for awhile. Then he repeated: "Giselle?"

At the same time Elizabeth had got up and turned her back to Jack. The woman trembled as she stood there at the line of the candlelight and darkness of the hold. Her blond hair shined in the light of the little flames. Elizabeth turned her head little and said over her shoulder to Jack: "I saw your son. Very sweet, little son of a bitch, Jack…"

"What..?!" Jack couldn't say any other words.

"Yes, I know about your secret relationship and a little Gabriel…" Elizabeth said and began to walk away from Jack, without looking back. "You can stop pretending now. It's all over and I will not stand in the way of your happiness."

Jack was completely puzzled as he looked after Elizabeth until the darkness swallowed the woman from his sight. The Captain stared alone at the black, watery darkness and for the first time in his life it looked frightening.


	11. Chapter 11

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Gloomy moments at the Black Pearl continue when Elizabeth answers the saddening truth to Jack's hopeful question…

11.

Elizabeth sat alone at the Captain's cabin of the Black Pearl and ate her evening-meal, which the cabin boy had brought her a moment ago.

Elizabeth put beans and pieces of carrots to her mouth and stared at the burning flame of the candle that was on the desk. The woman had cleared up the sea maps into one place at the edge of the desk and ordered to change sheets of the bed. She wouldn't be willing to sleep in the bed, where Jack had made love to his new woman… at least not without changing the sheets! And Jack should stay at the cargo hold, out of her sight until ship would arrive to Racoon Cay!

No-one of the ship's crew hadn't defied Elizabeth's orders, they respected the Captain's wife too much. And everybody sensed the tense situation between Elizabeth and Jack.

Elizabeth hadn't seen Jack after when she had told four days ago that she knew about Giselle and Gabriel. Elizabeth hadn't seen Jack on the deck, so the man must have still been very weak after the shooting.

_I wonder if Jack is awake?_ Elizabeth often thought secretly in her mind. _Does he miss me at all? _But after those kinds of thoughts she was angry to herself. _Who cares about Jack! __I don't care if he is in hell with that whore, right where he belongs!_

Elizabeth couldn't eat her food anymore. She was too lost in her thoughts, too worried. _How long does it take? Gibbs told me in the morning that it would take at least two or three days… eternity._

_I just want away from this ship… away from Jack. Here are too many memories…_

And she wanted to hug her little boys again. Elizabeth missed a lot of her children and especially at nights she thought that she heard Ron's cry or Alexander's laugh, but soon discovered that the voice was just night air which blew on the waves or on the rig. Then she pressed herself deeper into Jack's bed and cried her hopelessness against the pillow. The sweetly familiar scent of the Pirate Captain didn't ease the pain in her heart. Many times Elizabeth had almost ran to the cargo hold to fell in Jack's arms, to comfort herself in the pirate's warm, safely strong embrace against the coldness and the loneliness of the night.

But Jack wasn't her husband anymore, Jack had a new love. And Elizabeth wouldn't make herself a fool anymore!

xxx

Jack lied in the dark hold as he listened the night. The candles and oil lamps had been extinguished and he could hear the snoring of the crew a bit farther. The hull creaked every now and then and the water outside sloshed as it lived its own life. Despite of those, it was calm and quiet. And agonizingly dark and watery cold. Bilgewater sometimes smelt stronger than usually when the wave swayed the Pearl and Jack heard a rat in somewhere.

It was lonely.

Jack had slept days and had only sometimes woken to drink that awful medicine which that bloody stubborn quack tried to make him drink. But it seemed to help. The fever had slowly gone down and cleaning of the wound and changing the bandage had slowly begun to heal the injury.

But this night Jack felt himself livelier than in many days earlier. But at the same time he felt himself depressed. The conversation with Elizabeth bothered him… All that what Elizabeth had said...

_I am frustrated 'cause I can't get up and talk to me wife, who clearly is angry to me for some unknown reason. No… She is furious! And disappointed and sad because of me…_

_I just want to go me cabin, where Elizabeth sleeps and make things clear with me wife. But that bloody surgeon forced me to stay in bed as he begun to threaten me. Said that I would die if I don't rest! I think that he's gone too far!_ Jack thought by himself and reached to the little table next to him. He took a cigarette from a little box and put it between his lips as he searched the matches in the dark that his eyes had already used to.

Soon the cigarette burnt in the corner of Jack's mouth and he took his left hand under his head as he lied on his back and smoked. He blew the smoke up from his mouth and tried to see how it flew towards the ceiling. It was so boring. Jack yearned to get up on his feet and smell the sea air at the deck. He missed the sun and the rain. And he missed Elizabeth and her warm embrace. But it seemed that Elizabeth wouldn't let him anywhere near her.

_She hasn't visited here in four days_, Jack wondered. _Why she believes those things about me? Why she believes Gis than me? What that slut has lied to me wife?_

Jack felt unpleasant feeling crawling into his mind when he thought what Elizabeth might think alone up in there at the Captain's cabin. The woman was surely unhappy... Jack sighed and sucked the smoke deep inside of his lungs. He coughed lightly and then blew the powerfully smelling smoke out of his mouth.

_Elizabeth can't believe that bloody bitch's lies!_ Jack suddenly thought. _I have to speak with Elizabeth right now!_ He threw the cigarette on the floor. It extinguished immediately when it touched the wet floor.

xxx

Elizabeth was dressing on when somebody knocked on the door. The woman pulled the white, worn-out shirt over her head and glanced at the door._ Who bothers me at this time of the evening?_ Elizabeth put old blanket on her shoulders and said calmly: "Come in."

The door opened and Elizabeth met Jack's dark gaze. The man stood at the door, wearing only his trousers and shirt, he was barefoot and had no hat. Jack stared Elizabeth seriously. The Captain seemed to lose some weight because of the sickness and he leaned against the door as he was clearly exhausted. Apparently the journey from under the deck to the cabin had been rough after so many days of rest.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked rudely. She wouldn't have wanted to see Jack not a once during this journey. And at the same time all she had wanted was to see Jack… and to be close to him.

"I came to me own cabin," Jack said calmly. "I have lied down there for quite enough now."

"Then where will I go?" Elizabeth asked. "Are you going to throw me overboard?"

"Don't speak bullshit, Liz…" Jack sighed tiredly and stepped inside as he closed the door behind him. "Ye can be in this cabin as ye have been before."

"I don't want to be here if you are." Elizabeth said and sat on the edge of the bed as she put the blanket tighter around her.

Jack walked slowly inside of his cabin and saw how clean it was. The woman had cleaned every empty bottle away and cleaned his desk. Something that the Jack's crew hadn't had time to do before leaving from Tortuga.

"Liz, tell me what ye and Giselle have talked?" Jack sat on his chair because he had a very little strength to stand. Small journey across the deck had made his wound to ache and the blood rush in his head.

Elizabeth glared at Jack and said: "She introduced Gabriel to me at the clothing store."

"Gabriel?" Jack repeated. "Giselle's son?"

"He is your son, Jack." Elizabeth said and tried to stay calm. She didn't want to cry anymore, though the tears burnt her eyes just because of seeing Jack. "I heard that you had given money for the boy's clothes." Elizabeth sighed deeply.

"Ridiculous lies! He is not me son," Jack said angrily and looked at Elizabeth's eyes. "Do ye believe me?"

"No."

"Why do ye believe Giselle than me, yer own husband?"

"Because I know what kind of man you are, Jack."

"I was. But I am not anymore."

"Yes exactly, you WEREmy husband. Your tender moment with that slut at the tavern speaks the truth," Elizabeth said and closed her eyes for a moment. "And Gabriel looks just like you! He even could be Alex and Ron's brother… and so he is… expect that whore has given birth to him for you."

"It can't be true!" Jack shouted from his desk and felt the pain aching in the wound. He grimaced as the sweat formed to his forehead, but still he continued: "He can't be me child, he can't!"

"Why he couldn't be yours? If you know anything about the human biology, Jack… you should know that when you shag a woman, she might become pregnant." Elizabeth teased, but she hadn't any of the friskiness in her voice.

"Funny, Elizabeth!" Jack shouted. He felt desperate. _Why Elizabeth can't just trust me?! __Stupid question, but we made up and started again… Or was it all just left unsaid?_

"I say this one more time: I have never shagged Giselle." Jack squeezed his hands into fists and he would have wanted to focus his angriness to some of the items of the cabin. All items of the desk seemed to mock him, provoke him to throw one of them against the wall.

"You said that you haven't been in bed with her", Elizabeth teased him. "But I'm sure that you have shagged her on the desk, on the floor, here at your ship… somewhere on the pile of crap!" Elizabeth couldn't prevent her voice to break. She was so angry, so disappointed! "Did you shag her against the rum keg like you shagged me?!"

"Bloody hell, Elizabeth!!" Jack shouted as he lost his self-control and threw the first item that met his hand. The hourglass flew against the wall and broke down. The sand and broken glass spread over the floor and Jack stared the mess that he had caused as he breathed quickly.

But soon Jack was forced to bend on his chair, because he had been very inconsiderate when he had used his left hand to throw the hourglass. The quick move had made the pain grow stronger. Jack cursed between his teeth and breathed deeply as he held his side.

Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed and quiet tears fell on her cheeks. She had been scared of Jack's violent movement and been terrified that the man would throw the hourglass towards her. But Jack had never hit her and he never would, Elizabeth knew that. Jack hated the physical violence towards women. But instead, the pirate was master in hurting mentally.

"Jack, try to stand me for a few days," Elizabeth said quietly and wiped her face to her hands. "All I ask is a lift to Racoon Cay-island and then I will disappear. And I promise that I won't bother you anymore."

xxx

Jack got up from his chair and walked slowly to Elizabeth. The man's face looked almost emaciated and dark eyes almost black because of despair and aching. Elizabeth raised her eyes to Jack's face and more tears came out of her eyes.

"I won't let ye", Jack said with a low voice. "That whore won't come between us. I won't let that slut to ruin all what ye and I have made with hard work." Jack stared right to Elizabeth's eyes and suddenly the man fell on his knees in front of his wife.

Elizabeth stared at Jack quietly.

Jack took a hold of Elizabeth's small hands and took them between his own strong and tanned hands. Elizabeth didn't pull her hands off and she squeezed her eyes close, because her eyes couldn't handle the pour of the tears which fell out.

"Elizabeth," Jack whispered with hoarse voice. "Ye are me love, me whole world… nobody else. Ye must believe me… I am a lousy man, but I would never do anything bad to ye…" Jack caressed Elizabeth's fingers and hands in his hands. Softly and lovingly.

"Jack…" Elizabeth tried to say and tried to release her hands.

"Hushh, me little darlin'…" Jack whished and looked at Elizabeth's eyes as he kept the woman's hands in his hold. "Please, stay with me…"

"Jack, I…" Elizabeth sobbed. "I can't."

"Don't ye love me anymore?" Jack asked and the fear filled his voice. He let go of Elizabeth's hands. They were silent for a moment and during that moment Jack's gaze examined Elizabeth's teary, reddish and exhausted face.

"Elizabeth… answer me?"

Elizabeth opened her eyes and stared at Jack and the words came quietly out of her mouth. "No, Jack… I don't love you anymore. You killed that feeling."

"Elizabeth…" Jack said like he was in pain. His eyes were completely black, filled with horror as he stared at his wife.

Elizabeth gathered her strength and fixed her bearing. She said as cold as possible: "Leave me alone."

Jack stared at Elizabeth as he was shocked and got up slowly and uneasily. He tried to say something, but Elizabeth interrupted him, but she didn't look at him anymore. "I can go under the deck if you want your cabin back…"

"I understand." Jack said with hoarse voice and still stared at Elizabeth.

"So, what are we going to do?" Elizabeth asked quickly and refused answer to Jack gaze.

But Jack didn't answer; just after he had stood still awhile he turned his back to Elizabeth and walked slowly to the cabin door. Elizabeth didn't look after Jack, just sat on the bed with straight back and heard how the Captain opened door to nightly and windy deck. And he closed the door behind him as he walked out of Elizabeth's life for the last time. Slow and heavy steps mixed to the sounds of the sea until they disappeared completely and Elizabeth was free…

Free to cry the whole night at the cabin of the Captain of the Black Pearl.


	12. Chapter 12

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: The adventures at the Racoon Cay begin soon, but before that Jack arranges a little surprise to Liz…

12.

At the same time when the Black Pearl sailed tirelessly towards the Racoon Cay–island, the same wild living continued at Tortuga like before. People tried to live through every day and survive from the night as they did what they knew how to do best: they drank rum and continued questionable living like pilfering, smuggling, assaulting and fornication.

Tortuga was in that year of our Lord 1711, the most sinfulest place at the Caribbean. After the cleansing at Port Royal, the pirates had placed their haven in Tortuga and there they had revelled for many years now. But as the moving of power and authority was near, the future of the Tortuga was uncertain. Those, who desired to be the head of Jamaica's government, wanted also completely pirate-free Caribbean Sea.

Nobody knew about it at the cheerful pirate haven. There were only wild rumours about the Royal Navy that would come to burn the whole town. But they were only rumours that nobody did bother to believe in their drunkenness and as they tasted the sinful sweet skin of a wench on their lips. Tortuga and its inhabitants would live forever! So they announced at the taverns and brothels night after night and they raised a toast to the piracy. Nobody would dare to come to this town with evil plans in mind and if the enemy came it would experience the anger of the Caribbean villains.

That didn't scare that English warships' crew, which was preparing at Port Royal to sail towards the infamous island of Tortuga. There were hundreds of soldiers and everybody had strict soldier training, muskets with bayonet and utter hate towards the pirates. The ship had dozens of cannons, large and extremely strong brigs, excellent crew which knew everything about sailing and strict discipline.

The only missions of the warship was to sail to Tortuga and kill every single one of the town's inhabitants. The rest who survived would be captured and brought to Port Royal to be hanged without jury trial, because the peace loving, law-abiding people at Port Royal needed some sort of fun…

xxx

Elizabeth's mind was full of wistful waiting when she looked at the island on the left, which was actually the edge of the huge reef that raised above the surface. The ship sailed past the island that was called Ragged Island. Racoon Cay was part of the area of Ragged Island and they had only half of the day until they would arrive to their destination. Gibbs had said that the ship should be at the destination in the late evening.

Elizabeth leaned against the dark rail, lost in her thoughts, fluttering hair and face towards the sun as she heard Jack's crew's shouting, laughter and running behind her back. The crew was washing the deck and they fixed the sails after the last night's storm. Elizabeth had lied on the bed and had been very frightened when the storm had thrown the Pearl on the waves and the rain had hit furiously against the cabin windows. She hadn't dared to keep the candles' flame on because the wave may sway the ship and the candles would fly on the floor and start a fire. The woman had hid under the blanket in the dark as the lightings sometimes lightened the cabin with their electricity blue light and she had prayed that the ship would stay in one piece and nobody of the pirates would hurt as they kept the ship on the course. Not even Jack…

Elizabeth had cried and cried for two days until she couldn't cry anymore. Her and Jack's story, which they had believed to last forever, was over. The bottomless loneliness, disappointment and farewells were only things that were left as the ship sailed towards the Racoon Cay.

The farewells that they didn't want to say.

xxx

At the same time Jack was at the upper deck talking with Gibbs. The Captain didn't even accidentally glance down at Elizabeth; he just focused stubbornly to the map that Gibbs held, though Jack didn't even care about the map. Jack was taut like a string of a violin and extremely pissed, and no-one, except the first mate, dared to talk to him. Gibbs was like in between the crew and the Captain and though the mood at the ship was calm and cheerful, there still was storm hidden at the horizon.

The whole crew had talked about Jack and Elizabeth's break-up. Every night the crew had gathered to the darkest corner of the cargo hole and drank rum as the flame of the lanterns lightened their gloomy faces. They had pondered the situation with half-aloud voices, so that the Captain wouldn't hear them.

But Jack, who still slept on his sickbed though he was feeling physically better, had tried not to hear the whispers in the dark as everybody guessed the reason to the couple's break-up. Oh, he indeed knew what they talked about!

And every single night Jack would have wanted to go shout to his crew that he hadn't cheated Elizabeth, though everybody thought so.

But Jack had just tightened the shabby blanket around him as it protected him against the cold dampness. He had turned on his side as he had closed his eyes and lost in his mind, where raged the anger and loneliness. His heart was yearning for Elizabeth. Especially when he knew that he could never again embrace, kiss and make love to his wife, the yearning was hundreds times stronger than before when they were separated. He could never again keep Elizabeth as his wife or meet his children. He hadn't even seen the other child.

Was she going to force him to imagine for the rest of his life what his younger son looked like?

Jack had turned on his back on the bed and stared at the ceiling in the pitch-black darkness. He had thought about his son Alexander. The boy was now 6 years old. What would happen when Alex would be teenager and someone should teach him the all important things in life? Jack had always thought that when Alex would be old enough, he would refuse to hear Elizabeth's protests (which he would certainly hear) and Jack would take the boy in the tavern for the first time and they would spend the quality time as a father and a son. Jack would teach the best rum drinks and he would show how to get any lass Alex would wanted.

But that evening would never come. Elizabeth wouldn't allow it, because the woman seemed to keep the boys away from their father. Elizabeth would tell to Alex and Ron how horrible person Jack was and teach that the boys should never do anyone so bad things like Jack had done to Elizabeth.

_But bloody hell, I haven't done anything!!_ Jack had thought for a thousand times on that night and closed and opened his fists under the blanket. _I haven't done anything too horrible… All is wrong and I can't prove me words! And all just because of that bloody Giselle. All because that cheap slut lives for gossips and hurting the people. _Jack had gnashed his teeth and felt frustrated anxiety. _Here I lay in this lousy bed, _Jack had thought_. __Not up there at Elizabeth's embrace like I should. Bloody hell! __I will wring that Gis' neck when I go to Tortuga for the next time! _Jack had turned restlessly on his bed. _All because of that bitch…_

_Just because of that._

xxx

Evening came as the sun sank behind the waves, but the pressuring hot temperature stayed. Elizabeth sat in the cabin, once again at the Jack's desk, spending her time as she read one of Jack's logbooks. The man's winding handwriting filled the pages of the old book. Latitudes, longitudes, notes about capturing ships and lists of the treasure. Elizabeth turned the pages forward and her own name made her focus on one note, which Jack had written about four months ago.

_12.2.1711, 22.33, 20o N ja 73o W, Wind: N/E_

"_Today hasn't happened anything, though Gibbs was sure that the Spanish galleon would sail this course to Nassau. Bullshit… Apparently first mate is getting old. __I can't trust anymore to that moldy ear."_

Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh to Jack's colourful language. Then she turned serious again and continued reading as she almost felt herself stalker. But she couldn't stop reading because she had seen her own name in the text.

"_Because today I have felt so bloody boring, I had time to think about my family. __I try to keep myself busy… or drunk, so I wouldn't think of them. I would want to return to Jamaica, but I can't. I can't go back to Elizabeth and look at those beautiful eyes and pretend that everything is fine. I ruined it all that we had. Though I would want to blame someone else, I know that I am the one to blame…"_

_But I haven't spent a day, and I will not spend a day without missing my Lizzie… That will be my punishment for that what I have done." _

Elizabeth sighed deeply. There it was again! Gabriel was about 5 months old and Jack had written the text about month after the boy's birth. Elizabeth was sure that this note from the logbook told about Jack's regret, which he felt when he had made a child with Giselle. That was the crime which Jack must suffer his punishment from_._

Elizabeth slammed the book closed and opened the drawer as she threw the book there angrily. The woman pushed the drawer closed furiously and stared in front of her. Yes, Jack had made a crime towards her and Elizabeth was going to make sure that Jack would pay for it for the rest of his life.

Before Elizabeth began to cry again, her thoughts were interrupted when she heard shouting from the deck. The pirates' rushed steps emanated all the way to the cabin and the men yelled to each other: "We are there! There it is now: Racoon Cay."

"Bloody hell, how small it is!"

"Does it even have a port?"

"There is some lousy dock, but Captain gave the orders to anchor the ship somewhere to the southeast coast…"

Elizabeth got up from the chair and dressed the coat on quickly. She pulled her fingers through her blond hair and rushed to the deck as she was excited to see the island where her children were. They were so close to each other..!

xxx

It was completely dark already and Pintel ordered to lit the lanterns of the Pearl. At the same time the crew lowered the boat on the water. Ropes and winches creaked when the boat approached the dark water next to the Black Pearl's hull. The Pearl was anchored in front of the only village of the Racoon Cay Island. The weather was calm, but pressuring after a hot day. June's thunderstorm might attack again at the night and some of the crew tied sails and loose items tighter. The ship would be anchored at the night and turn back towards Tortuga tomorrow.

Elizabeth checked in the cabin that she had packed everything. Actually, she didn't need anything else but money and her sword, she didn't even have anything else with her. She had also got a pistol from Gibbs, which Jack had asked to give to Elizabeth.

The young woman's heart beat faster when she threw the weapon belt over her shoulder and pressed shabby tricorne hat on her head. Now was the time to go. Elizabeth was half excited, half terrified. She would never step on the deck of this ship, but the children waited for her.

_Will Jack come to say goodbye? Will he be on the deck watching as I go? I hope that he will not come… everything would be easier then._

Elizabeth blew off the flame of the last candle and the familiar cabin darkened around her. The woman opened the door to the deck and stepped outside to the hot night air. Her boat should be waiting for her by now.

xxx

Elizabeth looked at the small island in the darkness. _Must I go there alone?_ The woman felt fear squeezing her heart, but she decided to stay brave for her children. _Everything will be easier when I find my children, won't it?_

"The boat is ready, ye will find water and powder under the middle seat", a voice said behind Elizabeth.

Elizabeth turned her gaze and smiled a little: "Thank you, Joshamee. Thank you for everything."

Gibbs glanced the woman in front of him and then the old man sighed with utterly sad tone. "Can't ye even say goodbye to that poor Devil..?"

Elizabeth smile died and she turned her eyes back to Racoon cay. "No, I can't…"

"I understand…" Gibbs sighed more heavily.

"Good."

Elizabeth forced a smile on her face and she looked at Gibbs friendly, but the same time her eyes searched Jack from the deck. She didn't see him. _I'm sure that this moment isn't easy to him either_, Elizabeth pondered. _Well, he chose this road!_

"I will go now", Elizabeth sighed and turned her back to the first mate.

"Are ye sure that ye don't need a lift to back here?" Gibbs asked quickly.

"No, thank you. We will be alright." Elizabeth said quietly over her shoulder and took a hold of the rail as she was going to began to climb down on the boat.

"Alright then," Gibbs said with depressed tone. "Wish ye luck, Elizabeth…" Gibbs turned and walked farther on the deck, where Cotton gestured him to come.

Elizabeth felt that her cold shell almost broke when she heard Gibbs last words. She realized perfectly that she was on her own now. She was going alone to get her children from the unknown place, without heading. She was lonely mother, without man's safety and help.

She was alone.

Elizabeth breathed deeply and wiped the sweat off on her face. The heat was intolerable and Elizabeth waited that she would finally get on the boat, so that she could undress her coat and boots. And maybe cry a little once again. Rowing to the shore would be exhausting thing to do in this hot weather. Elizabeth looked down at the water, where the old boat swayed and waited for her. The woman sighed and decided that she had hesitated enough quite long enough. She was going to turn and began to climb down the ladders, when suddenly a strong hand took a hold of her shoulder.

Elizabeth startled and raised her gaze. And right next to her stood Jack and he was completely dressed as he had put on his coat and hat. The sword and pistol were on their places at the Captain's belt and the man's gaze was serious when he looked at Elizabeth.

"Jack... what are you..?" Elizabeth tried to say, but she couldn't do anything else but stare at the kohl-lined dark eyes.

"I'm coming with ye, Elizabeth", Jack announced calmly.

Elizabeth's eyes widened and she couldn't say anything for a while. Then the woman's gaze darkened because of annoyment and she said with cold voice: "No thank you."

"I wasn't asking yer opinion, woman." Jack snarled and stared demanding at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth noticed that the whole crew stared at them secretly from around the deck.

"Do you fear that I embarrass you in front of your crew, Jack?" Elizabeth said wickedly and leaned against the rail with annoying smile on her lips. Still her heart beat vehemently. "You are afraid of that, not that I will go alone in there."

"Shut it!" Jack snarled between his teeth. "I don't care about those deck monkeys. I will come to see me kids for the last time and then I will leave. That is all I ask from ye, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth's face turned gloomy. _Jack wants to see the boys? Ron, who he has never even met? Should I allow him to do it? Allow Jack to meet his sons even once? And Ron has a right to meet his father. At least I could tell my youngest son that he have met his father once._

That thought made Elizabeth change her mind. She stared at Jack's dark eyes and sighed: "Alright then…"

Jack sighed too and his shoulders relaxed. The man turned to look at Gibbs and he shouted: "I will come back tomorrow, keep the ship ready."

"Aye, Cap'n!" He heard confused answer.

Jack turned back to Elizabeth. "Get into the boat, Elizabeth, so we shall leave now."

Elizabeth snorted displeasedly and began to climb down. _Cursed Jack! He should have just stay away, so everything would be easier_, the woman cursed in her mind.

She climbed on the boat and saw Jack following her quickly. Apparently the wound had healed quite well or Jack didn't want to show his pain to Elizabeth. Soon Jack was on the boat too and after he had unfastened the rope at the stern, he walked to bow of the boat and sat on the seat. The man didn't look at Elizabeth and he began to loosen the rope of the bow without saying anything.

"So you are going to row?" Elizabeth asked grumpily and sat on the middle seat as he threw her coat on the bottom of the boat. The heat was intolerable. The woman took matches out of her pocket and lit the lantern to lighten their way.

"Aye, of course." Jack answered grumpily and he also wiped the sweat out of his forehead as he let go of the rope. Then the man threw his coat also on the bottom of the boat and put his hat on the seat where Elizabeth sat.

"Oh, how chivalrous you are", Elizabeth teased and stared at the Racoon Cay that waited for them in the middle of the darkness.

"Shut yer mouth already." Jack snarled and turned the boat rowing with other oar.

Elizabeth fell silent and stared sulking at the wet bottom of the boat and Jack's old boots. She sighed and thought that this would be unusually long night.

Once again she was right, but not quite the way she imagined.


	13. Chapter 13

From: pirateladyredgiehotmail

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Jack and Liz will forget the problems between them when they face bigger sorrows…

13.

Elizabeth stood on wet sand with hands on her waist as she leered Jack, who was tying the rope of the boat around a palm tree, which grew on the beach. The waves hit restlessly against the shore and dark clouds had appeared on the horizon. The clouds had hid the midnight's stars out of the sight. The storm was rising. The temperature was foreshadowing the hard wind, heavy rain and thunder.

"Where are they?" Jack asked as he wiped his forehead on his coat sleeve and walked to Elizabeth as he had tied the rope to the palm tree.

Elizabeth, who wasn't quite satisfied to Jack's presence, snorted and said: "At the inn."

"With what name?" Jack still kept asking and began to walk across the beach towards the sleeping village of the Racoon Cay.

"Brown." Elizabeth said shortly and ran to catch Jack. Walking, not to mention running in the sand was surprisingly hard, because her feet sank to the sand.

"Alright," Jack said. He glanced at Elizabeth from the corner of his eye and then said: "Could we try to behave in front of our kids?"

"I can behave in front of my children, Jack." Elizabeth said angrily and quickened her steps, so that she could walk in front of Jack.

Jack caught Elizabeth with few strides, so that the sand flew from his brown boots.

"I didn't doubt that, Liz. I meant that could ye try not to defame me when me son is hearing us?" The man snarled.

"I wouldn't defame..." Elizabeth said angrily and at the same time the sand ended under their feet and they walked on soft grass. On the other side of it were the first houses. "I would tell the truth", Elizabeth continued a little breathless and wiped the sand from her boots on the grass. "..If I told your son that his father is just a despicable scoundrel, who runs after whores. He will not follow your example and do your mistakes."

Jack heard from her voice that she was about to begin to cry. Jack gnashed his teeth to Elizabeth's harsh words and growled between his teeth: "Then say it, but it isn't true… at least about that running after whores-part!" Jack raised his chin defiantly and strode in the grass, next to Elizabeth. "And besides, I am the most wanted man in the Caribbean! Say that I'm just a lousy thief and lie to our son!"

"Shut up, you moron!" Elizabeth flared and suddenly stopped like she had hit on the wall. Jack too stopped to stare at her. "You are the liar here!" The woman almost screamed and stared furiously to Jack. "You have no right to criticise me! And thank you for messing me into your crimes!"

Jack laughed angrily as he wrenched the dark hat off his head and raged: "Blame yerself! Ye were the one who couldn't keep yer fingers away from me!"

Elizabeth squeezed her hands into fists and Jack saw that how the woman would want to attack on him.

"You seduced me and manipulated me and… and messed my head!" Elizabeth yelled as she stamped her foot on the ground.

"So I did and how ye liked it!" Jack growled back as the angry red spots appeared on his tanned cheeks. He waved his hat and almost threw it on the ground. He would have propably done it if it wasn't his dear tricorne hat.

"You even weren't that good!" Elizabeth shouted and swayed her sweaty, blond hair.

Jack took a step closer and said with a low voice: "I was exactly that good!" Jack took another step closer to his wife. "Even that good that I still remember how ye moaned and screamed under me!"

It was Elizabeth's turn to get some redness on her cheeks. The woman remembered too, though she wouldn't have wanted. Then she shouted: "Yes, I moaned and screamed because of suffering!"

"Ha!" Jack shouted and the silence descended on them for a moment.

Elizabeth knew that she had hurt Jack, but because she knew her husband thoroughly, she also knew that Jack would never show that he was offended. But the thought of apology didn't even appear to her mind. Instead she said with icily cold voice: "You're not even man enough to admit that you have done wrong!"

Until now Jack had tried to listen quite calmly the blames from Elizabeth, but now he couldn't stand anymore. The man took another threatening step towards the woman with black eyes filled with rage and he snarled with dangerous voice: "So there isn't enough man in me?"

Elizabeth stared at Jack and the pirate saw fear in his wife's eyes. Jack hate the thought that Elizabeth would begin to fear him, but at that moment he was too angry to care. He wanted to hurt Elizabeth and he said wickedly: "If there isn't any man in me, then how do ye think that I made Giselle pregnant?"

Elizabeth looked at Jack horrified and she sputtered as she started to cry: "So you admit it..?"

"Shit!" Jack shouted as he turned around and kicked the palm tree next to him then cursing his aching toe. "I won't admit anything!"

"But... you just..." Elizabeth began and fell silent.

"I just wonder how I have been able to make a child… or actually more than one if there isn't any man in me!" Jack shouted as he had completely lost his self-control and Elizabeth saw pure hate smouldering in the Captain's dark eyes. "Ye don't even know yerself what ye are talking about, ye stupid bitch!"

Jack stared at Elizabeth as he breathed vehemently. Elizabeth stared back to Jack and felt so insulted. Jack had never insulted her this way, but it seemed that now he had crossed that line too. What would come next? A hit?

"You know that I meant different kind of manhood, Jack…" Elizabeth said quietly and let her gaze fall. She felt like crying again and a sob escaped from her lips already.

"I know bloody well what ye meant!" Jack raged and began to search for cigarettes from the pocket of his long, greyish-blue coat. The anger made the lust for cigarettes too much to bear. Jack found his cigarettes and put one of them in his mouth as he set fire on it with angry movement.

"It was stupid to come here together", Elizabeth said and wiped her face that was reddish because of heat and tears. Oh, how she was fed up to cry!

"It surely was..." Jack said and sucked the cigarette as he frowned. "But soon we will be able to continue our own journeys, so shall we try to stand each other for a few hours."

"Yes," Elizabeth said and sighed deeply. "I guess it is nothing compared to that six years which we spent together."

Jack glanced at Elizabeth and threw his cigarette away. His face turned very gloomy and sad.

"Do ye think that it was suffering to you?" Jack's voice was quiet and previous anger had suddenly changed into upset.

Elizabeth looked at Jack and though she would have wanted to lie, she just said quietly: "You know it wasn't, Jack."

Jack walked slowly in front of Elizabeth and suddenly said gently: "Aye, I know. It was the best time of me life..."

Elizabeth raised the look of her brown eyes to Jack's face and she didn't want to nag or yell.

She simply answered: "Mine too."

Jack raised his hand and touched carefully Elizabeth's chin.

"Then why it has to end, Elizabeth?"

"You know it very well… I can't forgive what you did."

"I haven't done anythin'," Jack snarled and suddenly wrapped his hands around Elizabeth's waist and pulled the woman closer to him. Elizabeth stared at Jack with big, confused eyes. Jack leaned closer to Elizabeth's face and said as he looked intently to the woman's eyes: "And someday I will find a way to prove it to ye, Lizzie."

"Jack..." Elizabeth whispered and suddenly wanted to wrap her arms around the man and press his warm and familiar body against her own.

"Ye are stupid when ye let that whore come between us," Jack said with low voice, but gently caressing the hot skin of Elizabeth's chin. "But I can't blame ye…"

"No, you can't..." Elizabeth whispered.

"But ye can believe, Elizabeth Sparrow, because that is yer name…" Jack leaned a little more closer and his warm lips almost touched Elizabeth's perfect mouth. "Ye will not get away from me this easily. If I can't be with ye, at least ye can be sure that I will tease ye in yer dreams. And ye will miss me until the day ye die."

"Jack, you seem quite certain..." Elizabeth whispered breathlessly, trying to make her voice sound sharp. She didn't succeed quite well.

"Aye, I am," Jack said as his face was still just a few inches away from Elizabeth's face. "Ye love me, Elizabeth. No matter what ye will say or do, yer feelings will not fade away."

"So you think." Elizabeth said quietly and she couldn't prevent her gaze to fall on Jack's mouth that was talking to her with huskily and tempting voice.

"No, luv... I know." After he had said that, Jack put his hat back to his head and let go of trembling Elizabeth. The Pirate Captain began to walk calmly towards the houses, which had no light in their windows.

At the same time they heard threatening thunder at the horizon and distant clouds flashed in the shades of violet and white as they lightened the night sky for a moment. The clouds moved directly towards them, but it would take time before the clouds would catch them.

xxx

The first raindrops dropped from the night sky to the dusty sand and on the thatched roofs of the simple houses, when Jack with Elizabeth behind him, stopped in front of the house in the so called main street of the village. Dim light shined from the inside of the windows and the sign of the inn swayed creaking in the raising wind.

"Is this the right place?" Jack asked as he looked at Elizabeth.

"Yes, I guess so." Elizabeth said uncertainly and felt her heart jumping uncontrollably because of the wait. _My children are waiting there!_

Jack walked to the door of the inn and tried the rusty door handle. The door opened and the light lightened Jack's handsome face as he peeked inside. Jack turned to look at Elizabeth and gestured her to follow. They walked inside together and closed the door behind them. Maybe they would have been more careful if they had known what kind of trap they were walking into.

xxx

Jack walked briskly to the desk of the inn, where sleepily young man cleaned the pints and twisted cutlery. Candles threw lights and ghostly shadows on the skinny boy's face. Elizabeth followed after Jack as she glanced nervously towards the stairs that led to upstairs.

"Good evenin'." Jack said and leaned against the desk as he stared sternly at the boy. Jack noticed that the lad's hands began to tremble and the sweat glistered under his dirty forelock. The skinny face looked frightenedly at Jack and the boy could barely answer understandably: "G… Good evening, sir. H-how can I h-help you?"

Elizabeth came to stand beside Jack and looked silently to the shaking lad that had dirty grey shirt. _How lousy keeper of the inn_, Elizabeth thought. _So young… Is that whelp all alone in here? He barely dares to talk to us!_

"Here lives a woman called Anna Brown", Elizabeth said because she just wanted to say something. "We came to see her."

"Y-yes…" The lad said and almost collapsed the pile of pints with his shaking hands. Jack frowned. _What the hell is the matter with the lad?!_

"In what room they are?" Jack asked.

"At the room… thr… three. No… I mean… four."

"Three or four?" Jack snarled and touched slightly his beard. "Just spit it out!"

"Four, sir."

"Ta." Jack snarled and began to walk towards the stairs. Elizabeth followed after him and glanced at the boy, who wrung his hands nervously.

When they walked up on the old, creaking stairs Elizabeth whispered to Jack: "What a creep!"

"The lad almost couldn't hold his water when he saw me!" Jack whispered so that his golden teeth flashed and he glanced downstairs.

"Maybe he had heard of you?" Elizabeth pondered and at the same time they walked in the corridor of the upstairs. "Maybe he is scared of pirates and recognized you as one."

"Maybe", Jack said and they began to walk forward in the dimly lightened corridor. "And ye said that I am just a lousy thief…"

Elizabeth snorted. At the same time they heard a thunder and it began to rain harder outside. The clouds were floating over them.

xxx

The room number 4. The dark door with metallic number was closed and locked when Jack tried the door handle. Elizabeth almost jumped impatiently next to Jack and she couldn't wait anymore, so she knocked on the door.

Jack glanced silently to his wife and they waited for an answer. First they didn't hear anything and then they heard silent steps, which came closer to them in the other side of the door. Elizabeth's face lightened and soon she heard silent, familiar voice from the other side: "Who is there?"

"It's Anna!" Elizabeth whispered to Jack excitedly and then said aloud hurriedly: "It's us, Anna… Elizabeth and Jack!"

It was quiet for a moment and then a voice said behind the door: "Is there anyone else?"

"Of course not." Elizabeth said and she frowned impatiently. _Why Anna doesn't open the door and let me see my children?_

Suddenly Jack took a hold of Elizabeth's arm and stared seriously to the woman's eyes. Elizabeth answered confusedly to Jack's gaze and asked half-aloud: "Jack, what's the matter?"

"I just felt… that kind of feelin'." Jack mumbled and scratched his beard. The door in front of them hasn't still opened. They didn't hear anything from the inside.

"What is this?" Elizabeth said angrily. "What is the problem here?" She hit the door with her fist and shouted: "Anna, what is this game?! Open the door now!"

"Elizabeth, we shouldn't go in there…" Jack began, but suddenly the door opened and Anna's face appeared to look at them carefully. Pale brunette seemed to have lost more weight and she had strange, distant look in her eyes. Jack stared at the maid with suspicion, but Elizabeth was too excited to care about the looks of the younger woman.

"Anna!" Elizabeth shouted and pushed the door more open and pulled the girl in her arms. "How wonderful to see you!"

Anna looked carefully at Jack over Elizabeth's shoulder and clearly noticed that the Captain wasn't as joyful as his wife. The maid quickly looked down and stared Elizabeth's shoulder, because Jack's piercing gaze frightened her.

Elizabeth pushed Anna a bit father and asked smiling: "Are they sleeping?"

"Yes." Anna answered quietly.

"Why didn't ye open the door immediately?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"Jack!" Elizabeth scolded and glanced at Jack over her shoulder. "Don't think about it anymore. The children are safe and we are here!" Jack snorted quietly and Elizabeth turned her smiling face back to Anna. "We came to get them, so everything is alright now… I want to see them immediately!" Elizabeth said excitedly.

Without saying a word, Anna let Elizabeth inside of the room. The girl didn't dare to look at Jack, who was still going to say something, but Elizabeth had already walked into the dark room.

Jack hesitated for a moment as he fingered the handle of his sword and then walked after his wife.

xxx

The room was dark and it turned more darker when Anna closed the door behind them. Jack turned to stare at the closed exit and felt himself more nervous.

"Lizzie, come here with me…" Jack said with a low voice.

Elizabeth, who stood in the middle of the room, tried to see in the dark without hearing Jack.

"Anna, could you made a little light in here?" She said.

"Of course, madam." She heard quiet answer.

"Elizabeth, listen to me…" Jack began, but he was interrupted when an oil lamp suddenly illuminating the small room.

Jack and Elizabeth stared around them in the room, where was nothing else but a bed, bureau, a table and two chairs. The only window had been covered with curtain and there weren't any personal items.

Not to mention two dark haired boys sleeping.

Elizabeth searched her boys anxiously in the room with her eyes and turned to look at Anna, who stood in the corner with head down and trembling. Elizabeth strode to the girl and took a hold of Anna's shoulders as she yelled: "Where are my children?!"

Jack came also stood in front of Anna and growled: "Ye have done a bad mistake, lass! Where the boys are?" Jack couldn't control his anxiety or anger and he took a pistol from his belt as he put it against the forehead of the shaking and sobbing girl.

"Jack!" Elizabeth breathed, but she didn't prevent the Captain to hold a pistol against Anna's head. She also wanted to immediately hear where her children were!

"They..." Anna sobbed as tears fell on her face. The girl didn't dare or couldn't look at the couple. "They threatened to kill… me and my father... if I don't…" The talking stopped to frantic sobbing that trembled Anna's whole body.

"What?!" Elizabeth raised her voice and she shook the girl violently. "What are you talking about?!"

"I am so sorry..." Anna's voice broke and without caring about the pistol, she collapsed on the floor as she hid her face against her knees.

Jack and Elizabeth hadn't time to do or say anything else to Anna, when suddenly the door of the room was kicked down, so that the tiny pieces of wood flew on their feet. They turned around frightenedly and for their great horror they saw six redcoats with muskets in their hands rushing inside of the small room and surrounding them as the soldiers blocked their only exit. Men created the shape of semicircle around them and each soldier raised their weapons towards them. Jack didn't even try to raise his pistol, because it would have been useless… maybe just a suicide. The Pirate Captain lowered his weapon helplessly as he stared with his dark, confused eyes at the six soldiers.

"What the hell..?" Jack let out quietly and blinked his dark eyes. Only thunder answered to him with the majestic voice and the flash of the lightning.

Elizabeth couldn't do anything else, but stare fearfully at the red uniforms, which shimmered threatfully in the light of the lamp. The woman heard distantly Anna's sobbing somewhere behind her back. Raising a hand towards Jack was the only movement that Elizabeth could or dared to do. Her small hand grabbed of Jack's strong hand and squeezed it as she searched for safety.

Jack glanced quickly at Elizabeth and squeezed the woman's hand gently. Then they both stared the army of six men, which surrounded them with unknown intentions. Those intentions were easy to guess, but what would be the couple's destiny? That was still covered with darkness.

Right at that moment, all what Jack and Elizabeth knew was that they were in a trap.


	14. Chapter 14

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Anxiety in the brig.

14.

Jack watched helplessly from the dock when the soldiers drug screaming Elizabeth up on the ramp. It took three strong men to carry the kicking, screaming and swearing woman in the ship. To the ship that had came to get them. It was Royal frigate HMS Portentous which deck was swarming with redcoats like dangerous insects and there Elizabeth vanished behind the rail.

Jack moved restlessly, worried of Elizabeth and got immediately hit on his back from the two soldiers that hold him. Jack felt that the wound had begun to ache again when the soldiers had pushed and drug him from the inn to the harbour. His hands were tied and smelly piece of cloth had put in front of his mouth, so that he couldn't say any protests. The protests that nobody would listen.

As soon as Jack had arrived to the harbour, he had searched his ship with his gaze, but for his great relief he had noticed that it had disappeared. Gibbs must have ordered to raise the anchor and sail farther when they had noticed the arriving of the warship.

_Maybe the Pearl will come soon to rescue us_, Jack tried to calm himself. _It surely attacks soon after we leave the harbour. It bloody hell has to…_

Jack felt the back of the musket to hit against his back and he cried out in pain against the rag in his mouth. _It is me turn to walk into that horrible, floating prison. It will take me there, where I wouldn't want to return again._

_To the gallows._

_And the worst thing is that Elizabeth is going to stand at the morning of our dying day next to me and our kids are somewhere unknown place, in the hands of unknown destiny. And it all is me fault._

_Our family is broken and nothing ever again can bring us together. Though we would be free, our own conflicts will separate us far away from each other._

Jack sighed through his nose and closed his eyes for a moment because he was exhausted and depressed. Then he was willing to walk to the ramp as the soldiers walked after him. _What does it matter to be free if I can't be free with Elizabeth and the kids..? _

xxx

At the same time, but farther away the thick smoke raised to the sky and it drove birds away from their trees and forced animals to escape. The weather was cloudy and the thick smoke flew many nautical miles away from the port of Tortuga. At Port-de-Paix people watched terrified at the flames from the opposite island and listened the screaming of men and women that the wind carried clearly to the beaches of the Haiti.

Tortuga was burning and the inhabitants suffered.

The warship had arrived yesterday from Port Royal to the pirate haven and began to destroy systematically the town, first with cannons and then with military. People were killed at their places in front of their rum pints and everyday jobs. They were killed as they talked at the corners of the streets, spending heated moment with a wench, buying food or sleeping in their own bed.

Survives had been arrested and they walked to the brigs of the ship in long shackled lines. There was also a certain blond wench with red dress and her face was covered with dirt and soot. Tears were falling from her messy eyes, because she had lost her little son Gabriel and now they were taking her in to brig.

Like Jack and Elizabeth in elsewhere, she wondered too how anything could be alright ever again.

xxx

Jack grimaced in pain when he was pushed downwards in stairs of the cargo hold. The soldiers shouted insulting names to him, but Jack didn't care about it. He was worried of his wife and searched her with his gaze. Elizabeth was nowhere in the sight and Jack didn't hear her screaming. That made him more restless. _Why couldn't they take just me? __Why also Elizabeth and the kids? Wasn't it enough that they caught me, the notoriest criminal in the Caribbean?_

No it wasn't. Jack knew that the arresting of Elizabeth and the children was part of his punishment.

Jack wanted to resist more when the brig came closer. It would make him more helpless than before and changes to escape were even smaller than before. Jack's dark brown eyes glanced nervously around him and he heard steps of the soldiers above him, from the deck. The cargo hole was like any other cargo of the big ship. Full of items and weapons. Boxes, ropes, cannons and barrels. The crew's small sleeping place was farther on their left and smaller brigs at their right side.

Jack had gotten used to the smell of the bilgewater, but now it felt unusually strong and disgusting. The moldy stink penetrated to Jack's nose and he felt like he couldn't breath. He felt a need to get his mouth free and the nausea crawled in the bottom of his stomach. The Captain concentrated to take a deep breath, so that the panic wouldn't take the hold of him. At the same time they had walked in the back of the cargo, where was strong iron cage. Surprisingly there was just one brig, but it was big enough even to twenty people.

"You will stop here, sea rat", other soldier said behind Jack's back and searched the keys from his red pocket. "You will share this luxury brig with your witch. I'm sure that you will have lovely time together." The soldier laughed and the other redcoat guffawed to his joke.

Jack didn't care about of the stupidity of those two, because he was pleased that he would be able to be in the same brig as Elizabeth. At least he could try to protect the woman if someone tried to do something bad to Elizabeth. _It will only happen over me dead body_, Jack vowed and tried not to care about the weakness that the pain of the wound caused to him.

The door opened with creak and Jack was pushed violently inside of the brig. They didn't free his hands and didn't take the rag away, but he knew that he could get his hands free when nobody would see. Jack heard the door to be locked behind him and the redcoats left him alone. But completely another thing was in Jack's mind as he looked around in his dark prison.

_Where is Elizabeth?_

Jack walked nervously around the brig, just to realize more clearly that Elizabeth was gone. _But those gutless eunuchs said that we will get into same brig!_ Jack thought and walked around in the brig like disturbed attraction of the zoo. _Why me wife isn't in here? Where is she and what they have done to her?_

_Elizabeth..._

Jack felt the panic to grow stronger and he leaned his back against the wall of the brig. Slowly he let himself to fall to sit on the floor. There he sat helplessly and waited what would happen next.

xxx

Jack heard undefined voices, which came somewhere next to him. His eyes were half-open, but he couldn't see anything in the darkness and he knew that he had fever again. The sweat glistened in his forehead and cold shivers went through his body. His clothes were also wet as he had lain on the wet floor.

"Elizabeth..?" Jack whispered in the darkness with hoarse voice and suddenly realized that the fabric, which had covered his mouth, was gone. For his great relief he heard a silent answer: "Jack…"

Jack tried to get up, but it hurt too much. He lay still and hoped distantly that the wound haven't opened or gotten infected. Then he would be doomed in this dirty and wet ship even before the hanging.

Suddenly someone appeared next to him. Soft hand touched his face gently and other caressed his nape. It must be Elizabeth.

"Where were ye?" Jack asked with eyes closed, enjoying the gentle and comforting touch on his skin. "Did they... do something to ye?"

"Don't worry about it, dearest." Elizabeth's crying voice said in the dark.

"Of course I worry about it", Jack said angrily and coughed. "Say immediately what happened?"

"They tried..." Elizabeth began, but she couldn't continue.

Jack got up to sit with the power of the anger as he shouted: "What!"

"Jack... calm down", Elizabeth tried to reassure as she sobbed. "Of course they tried it, but…"

"But what?!" Jack shouted angrily as he tried to see something in the dark trying not to care about his illness.

"But they didn't manage to do it…", Elizabeth sputtered.

"Are ye sure?" Jack asked.

"Yes... I did it so difficult to them… They got furious and threw me here."

Jack gasped in pain and anger and he couldn't do anything else but to fumble with his hand to somewhere towards Elizabeth's voice. His hand met the woman's arm and he took a hold of it like only piece of wood in the sea after the shipwreck. Jack felt in his fingers that Elizabeth's shirt was broken and he felt the anger to boil inside of him.

"Jack", Elizabeth whispered gently. "They didn't do it to me, just believe me…"

"But...", Jack sputtered and wrapped his hand around Elizabeth, who sat next to him on the brig's floor and buried his face against the woman's chest like a little child. His fingers caressed Elizabeth's long hair and the woman's delicate back and he breathed vehemently against his wife's warm chest.

"No any buts. You are sick again and I think that you should fall sleep… I will be here", Elizabeth hummed against Jack's head and held the man tightly in her arms, swaying him slowly back and forth. "I am still only yours…"

Jack sighed deeply and caressed with his dirty hands his woman's back and sides.

"Are ye?" He soon whispered with very tired voice like he would fall asleep in any minute.

"Yes I am...", Elizabeth whispered and kissed gently Jack's wet, dark hair. "Though you had done anything… Like you said: my feelings won't fade away."

xxx

Elizabeth lied on her back against the hard floor and Jack pressed himself close to her. It was dark, the floor was wet and cold, but there wasn't any other place to sleep. So they sought warmth from each other. Jack shivered because of his fever, his head was against Elizabeth's chest and he held firmly of the woman's arm. Elizabeth's arms were around him as they caressed him reassuringly.

"Jack, I wonder where the children are now?" Elizabeth suddenly asked unhappily and squeezed the fabric of Jack's shirt in her hand. "Why did they do this to us all..? Why to them?"

"I don't know", Jack whispered. "This is all me fault…"

"Jack...", Elizabeth began with a sigh.

"It is", Jack said.

For a moment it was quiet and then Elizabeth said: "I know that they are alive."

"Of course... Of course they are, luv…", Jack said with thick voice. The fever kept his body in its hold. "They are alive and hea...lthy, ye will see..."

Again silence, which was broken by just the ordinary voices of the ship and vehement breathing of the two prisoners. Elizabeth's hand didn't stop caressing Jack's rough hair and the pirate let himself to stop the fight against the sleep.

"I... I love ye, Lizzie...", Jack mumbled as he was half-sleep already.

Elizabeth blinked quiet tears away from her eyes and continued the caressing of Jack as she moved her hand under his hair, against the moist nape. Elizabeth didn't cry anymore, but she stared at the darkness like with blind eyes.

"I know, Jack...", She whispered. "I know…"


	15. Chapter 15

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Liz and Jack's distress is getting worse and Liz meets unexpected guest…

15.

It was very early morning at Port Royal when soldiers and prisoners walked in the yard of the fortress that was wrapped in the morning mist. The pale sun rose from the sea and lightened the strong wall of the building, but the light didn't yet touch the stony yard, which emanated the coldness of the night. Red coated guards looked down from the wall and continued their patrolling with peaceful steps as they disappeared behind walls.

Jack walked with a little bowed posture, hands tied behind his back and he almost stumbled on the cobblestones under his feet. His coat was dirty and his hat and his pistol had been confiscated. His head was down and the dark hair covered his handsome face that was now exhausted because of tiredness and pain. But still his feet carried him forward.

Elizabeth walked after him in her shabby shirt and trousers. And almost as exhausted and broken as Jack. Traces of several tears striped her beautiful, delicate face and her hair was messy and tainted with dirt. Soldiers had also tied her hands painfully tightly.

Jack and Elizabeth were tied in thick chains, which they dragged on the ground with clattering sounds and the desert yard echoed ghostly. Their wrists were chafed quickly after when they had been released from the brig of the HMS Portentous hour ago and they had been chained ready for the transportation. The transportation that would take them to their last destination, the most feared place in the eyes of the pirates and criminals and the most enviable place in the eyes of the nobility of the Caribbean sea, the fortress of Port Royal.

xxx

They walked through the vault under the ground. Their footsteps echoed against the stony stairs and the darkness swallowed them like they had walked into a mouth of some kind of huge beast. Jack and his wife were too exhausted to protest even once. Jack was still weak because of the fever, though he had rested several days in the brig of the Portentous, sleeping on the Elizabeth's lap and talking quietly about everything insignificant what would keep them sane. They hadn't spent energy to the quarreling anymore, because they both knew painfully surely what would be their destiny.

It didn't matter anymore what they had done or what they had left undone.

Elizabeth had screamed and begged until her voice was husky and she couldn't even cry anymore. She was exhausted and just would have wanted to sleep in peace. And she would have wanted to know that her children were alive, but nobody was willing to tell it to her.

They walked silently with slouched posture towards cells as guards surrounded them. When they stopped in front of passages of two tunnels and two redcoats grabbed roughly of Jack's shoulders, Elizabeth raised her head and panicked. She watched terrifiedly how hers and Jack's shackles were separated from each other and guards turned to the right and other soldiers began to drag Elizabeth to the left.

"Jack!" Elizabeth screamed and her shouting echoed in the stony tunnel. Somewhere faraway someone let out miserable wailing, like an answer to her shout. The light of the torches lightened Elizabeth's horrified face.

Jack turned uneasily in the hold of guards and looked at Elizabeth with endlessly tired and sad eyes. His dark eyes, which had lost their cunning glisten, looked at the wife's shaking body and he said: "Elizabeth… I am sorry, luv... about everything…"

"Jack!" Elizabeth wailed again and struggled franticly in the hold of soldiers. "Where are you going? Where are you taking him?!" Guards took a firm hold of her shoulders and she had to calm down.

Nobody did answer to her and guards began to push Jack away from Elizabeth. Jack turned to look at Elizabeth over his shoulder for the last time and his lips said almost without a sound: "I love ye..."

"Oh, how cute! Here we have an emotional pirate!" Guards mocked him as they pushed Jack forward and hurt his arms and back. "Keep walking!"

Jack didn't turn around to look at Elizabeth anymore and let guards to take him forward.

"Jack!" Elizabeth shouted again with panicked voice when they began to drag her in the other direction. "Don't leave me!" The woman let out wailing shout when Jack disappeared behind the corner at the end of the tunnel and soldiers dragged her towards the darkest depths of the prison, where she would spend her last night.

xxx

The night came and it seemed to be even longer than the day. The night's arriving could be seen only from the just a little darker darkness that descended down to the cells, crawling into cold stonewalls and iron, rusty bars. The air also turned colder when the sun didn't warm the huge prison fortress from somewhere above.

Elizabeth lay on her back on the hard floor, because the bunk in her brig was broken. The woman looked at the flame of the torch. It was farther in the narrow hall and it lightened Elizabeth's small cage very little. Tiny drops of water dropped from the ceiling in the silence of the night and mold smelt everywhere. It was stifling and no-one could run away from that stink, so prisoners just had to get used to it.

Elizabeth__felt her lower back and stomach hurt as she knew that she had gotten painful infection from the cold and wet brig, where she and Jack had been for over a week. And now the cold stone floor just made the pain worse. At the same time her breasts were aching because she hadn't breastfed for awhile. But Elizabeth didn't bother to care about the protests that her body made. What she could do? She just wanted to lie there and she almost fell asleep, but she didn't want to surrender to her tiredness.

This was the last night on earth. Nobody has told it to her, but Elizabeth knew that pirates were hanged almost without any exception the next morning from the arresting day. And because the jury trial wasn't coming to Jack's kind of criminal and his whore wife, so naturally the hanging would be fulfilled at the moment of sunrise. Elizabeth also knew that Jack knew this fact too.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and thought about her children. She saw Alexander's smiling face and wild plays at the garden of their home. She saw Ron sleeping in a cradle or crying because of hunger. The woman crossed her cold hands and prayed that the children would be alright somewhere, wherever they were… in this world or beyond. Elizabeth asked strength for Jack to stand this night and stand bravely next morning. She prayed courage for herself to face the mocking and spitting crowd, who would insist loudly her death tomorrow. And her husband's death.

The young woman's quiet prayer was interrupted when suddenly she heard steps from the passage. Elizabeth got up to sit on the floor and stared with widened eyes to the narrow hall behind the bars, where black shadows danced on the walls with the sound of steps. Someone was coming… Elizabeth held her breath and waited. Maybe it was just a guard on patrolling or someone other prisoner was leaded to his cell. Suddenly two characters appeared and stopped in front of Elizabeth's cell. The young woman couldn't see anything else but that the other was a woman with a red dress and the other was a guard. Elizabeth couldn't see their faces.

From the darkness she heard a strange voice that belonged to the guard: "You have a guest…"

"What?" Elizabeth whispered huskily and watched with stunned look on her face when the woman bent down in front of her cell.

Elizabeth felt like her heart stopped beating when she saw a face in the dark and heard familiar voice of a woman: "E… Elizabeth?"

The voice belonged to Giselle.

Elizabeth jumped to stand and rushed to the door of her cell, which bars Giselle held and peeked carefully inside the brig. Elizabeth bent down to see Giselle's face better and she asked with extremely stunned voice without even trying to sound aggressive: "What are you doing here!?"

Elizabeth could see Giselle's tangled, blond hair that hanged in one mess against her nape. The dark makeup had poured along the wench's cheeks and Giselle cried even now quietly as she squeezed bars with her bony fingers.

"Elizabeth, I… I had to see you", The older woman sputtered as she sobbed.

"Why?" Elizabeth asked with widened eyes and sat down on the floor. "How did you end up in here?"

"Tortuga is destroyed…" Giselle sobbed and the guard behind her sighed impatiently. "They burned and killed everything..."

"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth whispered shocked.

"They brought me and many others here to the gallows. They will hang us right after you…"

Elizabeth was speechless. She could have never guessed that they would persecute pirates like this. She had thought that soldiers were just after her and Jack. But Tortuga didn't exist anymore… Soon she and Jack wouldn't exist anymore. Elizabeth's gaze wandered to the ceiling of the cell and back to Giselle. She would have wanted to faint, but she breathed deeply and then said: "It doesn't matter anymore, Giselle…"

"I know…" The woman sobbed. "But that is not the reason why I came here…"

Elizabeth looked at another woman with confused eyes and suddenly she remembered their conversation eternity ago.

"If you came to mock me then you can leave immediately. Keep your victory somewhere else!" Elizabeth's voice was very cold.

"Elizabeth, I don't..." Giselle tried to say as she stammered.

"Go to Jack's brig and give him the last passionate night filled with love!" Elizabeth mocked bitterly. "The guard surely can guide you there right away."

Giselle sobbed quietly, looking at the ground and then said quietly: "My son is dead..."

Elizabeth was speechless again and stared at Giselle. She didn't know what she should think about it. The child had been innocent to his ancestry. But he had been a child, who was the result of Jack's betrayal.

"I am sorry." Elizabeth's voice was bland. "My sons are in the hands of unknown destiny. I don't know where they are now..."

Giselle's shoulders collapsed and she squeezed the bars in the agony of her soul and raised her gaze to Elizabeth's big eyes, which stared at her in the dark.

"It is true that I love Jack..." The wench began with stammering voice.

"Save your words to someone else." Elizabeth snorted and turned away from the other woman.

"Listen, please." Giselle begged quietly and continued: "I have always loved. I couldn't stand it when you came between us. I saw how Jack began to dream about you and I was secondary..."

"Yes and you decided that you wouldn't allow that." Elizabeth said angrily and turned to scowl at Giselle.

"Yes…" Giselle said quietly and then fell silent.

"Is this what you came to tell me?" Elizabeth asked with icy voice in the darkness of the cell.

"I came to tell you that I was wrong." Giselle suddenly said surprisingly determinedly as she raised her face.

"About what?"

"You, Elizabeth."

Women looked at each other in the darkness and the guard jingled his keys a bit farther away from them. The man began to seem impatient. Otherwise was almost quiet, they couldn't hear voices of other prisoners, because the despair descended thousands of times stronger in this place at nights.

"Me?" Elizabeth repeated.

"I should have let Jack to be happy with you..." Giselle sighed. "But I was so bloody jealous..." The older woman's voice broke again. Elizabeth waited silently and soon Giselle continued: "I wanted to pretend that I had something same like you have, but I didn't realize it..." Again sobbing. "I didn't realize how true and real everything is between you two..."

Elizabeth felt tears in her eyes. _Yes... My love for my husband still lives in spite of it all. __Not any misfortune or obstacle can make it broken, it will be and stay like a bedrock. It will live as long as I live. _Elizabeth smiled sadly to that thought.

"Elizabeth, I want to ask forgiveness from you." Giselle whispered and stretched her hand between the bars towards Elizabeth. "Please…"

"Ask forgiveness from what?" Elizabeth asked. "Because you destroyed my marriage and managed to seduce my husband into your bed when he was drunk? And that's not all, he made you pregnant!" Elizabeth's voice broke and she bit her lip as hot tears fall on her face. "Is that what you want to apologize?"

Giselle, who also cried and still kept her hand towards Elizabeth, said: "I wanted to apologize that I lied to you so rudely and inconsiderately…"

Elizabeth wiped her face and raised her gaze first to Giselle's face and then to her open hand.

"What?" Elizabeth whispered huskily.

Giselle wiped her face and they turned dirtier than before. She said as she looked straight to Elizabeth's eyes: "Forgive me that I lied to you..." The woman sniveled with her nose and then continued with quiet but calm voice: "Gabriel wasn't Jack's son, even though I would have wanted. Jack and I had never shag... had sex during your marriage, because he always stayed faithful to you right until he passed out."


	16. Chapter 16

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: NC17

Summary: Jack and Elizabeth's last night

16.

Elizabeth's thoughts were completely in confusion as she sat there surrounded by the bars and the darkness of the night. Giselle sat outside of the iron cage and waited silently Elizabeth's answer. The wench had stopped crying as she had confessed her lie.

Apparently now the woman waited for some kind of absolution. After all, they were living their last night on earth.

Elizabeth didn't know what to say or what to believe. Millions of thoughts rushed through her brains and she thought what Giselle's confession would mean._ The fight, anger, sadness… almost Jack's death… What all we have been through for nothing!_

Somewhere someone let out a scream and women raised their heads as they listened the wailing silently. But they didn't hear the screaming anymore and finally Elizabeth asked: "But your son is…" She fell silent for a moment and then corrected quietly: "He was just like Jack. How do you explain that?"

Giselle raised her gaze as she had stared at the floor and said with depressed voice: "Gabriel was a son of Martin Sweetheart Ayers."

Elizabeth was quiet again and felt chills as she remembered that slimy, twisted man. And yes! The man had looked similar to Jack. Suddenly Elizabeth realized that maybe it had been the reason why she had been willing to walk on the deck of Mythology. She had instinctively felt attraction towards the man, who had someway looked and acted like Jack. The young woman sighed to her own stupidity.

And maybe she had wanted to see Gabriel a little more like Jack than the little boy had really been. When believing strongly into something, it made carrying wings to an imagination. Elizabeth sighed again.

"Was it intentional?" Elizabeth asked and rubbed her aching back.

"What?" Giselle sounded exhausted.

"That when you made a child with a man who resembled Jack."

"Yes, it was…" Giselle admitted embarrassed and didn't look at Elizabeth. "I spent time with him as I imagined that he was Jack. Ayers didn't get easily any other women than whores, so he was easy to seduce. They called him as Sweetheart, because he always had a new, so called sweetheart near him.

"Interesting", Elizabeth said sarcastically. "That Sweetheart is now at the bottom of the sea."

Giselle stared at Elizabeth for a moment, but the death of Martin Ayers didn't seem to make her grieve.

"And when you were pregnant to a man who looked like Jack, you decided to use it as a weapon against me." Elizabeth continued and didn't even bother to hide the rudeness in her voice.

"No", Giselle denied and fixed her position. The corset clearly squeezed her in that difficult sitting position on the cold floor. "The thought of lying to you came into my mind on that day when you walked inside of that store, where we were shopping. But… as I was alone with the baby I imagined that Jack would be the father of my son."

"You are insane." Elizabeth said with a low voice, almost with disgust and raised her gaze into the guard. "Please, take this woman away."

The guard walked to Giselle and pulled her up as he said: "Now you return back to your cage, whore."

Giselle let the guard began to lead her away, but she still begged: "Elizabeth, please forgive me…"

"Go away, Giselle. Leave the decision of forgiveness to God." Elizabeth said bleakly and turned away from another woman, who disappeared in the passage as she was leaded with a redcoat. For a moment their shadows danced on the wall and then darkness sucked them inside.

xxx

Elizabeth was left alone to think in her cell. She leaned her head against her knees and kept her eyes closed. Her body ached, but she had too many thoughts in her mind, so that she could care about it right then. _Oh, how I want to go to Jack and tell him that he had been right all the time and spoken truth. I would want to apologize that I hadn't trust in Jack's love and our marriage. I would want to spend even a moment with my dearest, but we are out of each others reach in this horrible place, where human's freedom is unknown word._

Elizabeth sighed and tried to imagine what Jack thought alone there in somewhere. _Alone in his own cell, poor man…_

At the same time she heard footsteps again and another guard walked slowly in the narrow hall. Apparently he was on his patrolling. Elizabeth raised her head and stared at the man, who glanced in her cell. Suddenly a desperate thought appeared in Elizabeth's mind. She rose more and called him: "Mister guard!"

The man stopped as he heard the woman's voice and took a few steps back as he looked at Elizabeth. The man looked quite innocent and inexperienced, but too masculine to be just a lad. His eyes were expressionless and his hand jingled keys constantly in his pocket. Elizabeth thought distantly that it must be the favorite hobby of these redcoats.

"What do you want, pirate's whore?" The man asked rudely, but his voice didn't convince Elizabeth.

"Could I meet my husband?" Elizabeth asked with her humblest voice. She hoped that with right kind of persuasion she might get what she wanted.

The guard laughed pompously: "Of course not!" The man stood still and seemed fed up. "Did you want something else?"

"Please. I would want to spent my last night with him." Elizabeth said and suddenly the cry strangled in her throat. The despair was taking a hold of her.

"This is not some spawning ground!" The guard teased and he was leaving already.

"Wait!" Elizabeth shouted and came to the door of the cell so that she could look in the guard's eyes. "That wasn't my intention. I just would have wanted to see him before… our death." Elizabeth felt like she choked as she said the last word.

"Erm… I don't…" The guard began with a snarl and moved uneasily.

"Please", Elizabeth begged again and stared at the guard with big eyes as she grabbed of the bars. "If this was your last night on earth and you would die tomorrow, wouldn't you want to spend it with your dearest?"

The guard stared at Elizabeth in the middle of the darkness and he was silent for a moment. Elizabeth realized that her words had effected on him and she understood that soldiers were also just humans, who had personality. Maybe this man wasn't so cold after all.

"I'm sure that you don't care less if we are in the same cell in these last hours. Please, be so kind and take me to my husband. That is my final wish and everybody has a right to one before their end…"

"I really shouldn't…" The guard sighed.

"Please…" Elizabeth said again and squeezed the cold metal in her hands. "I beg you…"

xxx

Elizabeth's heart beat wildly when she walked in the passages of the nightly prison. The guard walked beside her and guided her forward quickly. The man was visibly nervous of the thought that somebody would see them. The journey to Jack was very curvy and Elizabeth felt that it would take eternity. They turned from several corners and walked along many passages. Some of them were illuminated, some were dark. There were cells with quiet prisoners and then there were just stonewalls without windows and without any connection to the ground.

"Do you know something about my children? Something about Alexander and Ron?" Elizabeth asked quietly from the guard when they walked forward.

"Be quiet." The man said and they continued walking.

"Do you?" Elizabeth asked carefully again.

"No, I don't." The man answered shortly.

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth almost began to cry, she was so disappointed.

"Yes. Now be quiet."

At the same time they walked into the passage which leaded to one cell and it was illuminated with one single small torch. That light didn't reach inside the iron cage and it was impossible to say anything about the room that hid behind the bars.

"Are we there?" Elizabeth whispered when the guard pushed her in front of the door. The man nodded silently and took keys from his pocket. Elizabeth tried to see Jack trough the darkness, but she didn't succeed. She didn't hear a sound. It was depressingly quiet.

"Thank you." Elizabeth sputtered to the guard when he opened the door and pushed Elizabeth in. The man glanced around him and locked the door. He didn't stay, just began to walk away quickly.

xxx

Elizabeth stood still when the door closed and she whispered: "Jack?"

She took a step forward as she squinted her eyes. There was someone laying on the floor. It was difficult to say in what position he was, but at least he lived, because she saw small movement.

"Jack? Is it you?" Elizabeth asked fearfully and for a moment she feared that she had came into wrong cell. If the guard had tricked her?

Suddenly she heard a voice from the darkness. It was familiar, but it had just a shadow of its former strength and enchantment. It really was Jack. Or maybe it was just a shadow of him. The shadow against cold stonewalls and ground floor. Elizabeth rushed to the corner and kneeled beside him.

"Jack!" Elizabeth called anxiously and shook the man. "Jack, wake up!"

"Mmmhh… Elizabeth…" Jack mumbled unclearly. "No, I can't… I can't keep an eye on Alex right now, luv… I have to go to upperdeck… the fore-and-aft sail and the mainmast…"

Elizabeth was shocked. Either Jack was in deep sleep or he saw hallucinations. She shook the man again violently as she called his name again. Jack startled and shrieked as he sat up. Elizabeth could now see better in the darkness and saw how Jack's gaze wandered back and forth and then the eyes stopped at her. Jack was silent for a moment and then raised his hand as he touched Elizabeth's cold cheek. Wistful smile appeared on Elizabeth's face and she put her own hand on Jack's hand as she caressed scarred skin with her fingers.

"How did ye..?" Jack began and looked at the woman as he tried to see in the darkness. He raised another hand too and took Elizabeth's face between his hands. "Is this a dream? I dreamt about the Alexander's birth…"

Elizabeth still had sad smile on her face and she asked with soft voice: "What did you see?"

"I saw us", Jack answered with husky voice and still caressed the woman's face with amazement. "Though we had hard time at the ship… we were happy."

"Yes, we were…" Elizabeth whispered and a tear escaped on her cheek. "Just you and me… and the baby."

"And almost twenty ragged pirates", Jack laughed and looked straight to Elizabeth's eyes. "Especially Gibbs was particularly excited about Alexander's birth."

The woman laughed too and pressed her forehead against Jack's. "Yes… He drank all the time, so that he could sleep at nights when the baby began to cry." Elizabeth said and the couple laughed wearily to the distant memory.

"Elizabeth, how did ye get here?" Jack asked quietly and grimaced because of the pain that crushed his side. "Why did ye come?"

"Aren't you happy to see me?" Elizabeth teased gently.

"I am!" Jack almost shouted and wrapped his arms around the woman. "I really am! Are they going to let ye be here the whole night?"

"Yes…" Elizabeth whispered and wrapped her hands around Jack. She was so happy. For a moment she completely forgot that this would be their last night. She couldn't think anything else but the truth that Jack had been faithful all the time. He had loved only her all these years.

Elizabeth caressed Jack's back and nape with her hands and she couldn't stop staring in her husband's eyes and smiling. Jack answered to her gaze as he smiled and the old, familiar twinkle returned in his dark eyes.

"Does your wound hurt?" Elizabeth asked gently.

"Sometimes." Jack said huskily and fixed his position a little, but he didn't let go of Elizabeth.

"Does it hurt so much that I cannot give you a little kiss..?" Elizabeth asked as she bent closer.

Jack's gaze descended on the wife's lips and then back to her beautiful eyes, which twinkled to him in the darkness.

"I could never be so in pain that I couldn't kiss with ye, princess."

"You said that I wasn't your princess anymore, Jack." Elizabeth reminded as she smiled playfully and bent closer.

"Ye will always be me princess." Jack grinned and bent even closer to the woman.

Elizabeth tasted Jack's warm mouth with her lips. The man turned serious and pulled her more closer as he breathed vehemently. Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a hold of Jack's nape with her hand. The black beard tickled her nose and chin when she pulled Jack's head closer and pressed her mouth on the Captain's mouth.

Jack's hands caressed Elizabeth from everywhere. He barely could breath, it felt so good to feel the mouth of his own woman against his. He had yearned this for so long time. Jack didn't know how he could keep Elizabeth close enough, how he should answer to her kiss gently and lovingly, when he wanted to kiss her more franticly and passionately than ever before.

Their tongues played with each other and their lips devoured each other insatiably. Elizabeth moaned against Jack's mouth and turned weak in his arms. But Jack tightened his hold around Elizabeth and kissed Elizabeth's mouth more eagerly. He had missed this so! Jack got great pleasure by making pleasure to Elizabeth. Heated kisses, small nibbles, gentle lickings with a tip of a tongue. Everything was just wonderful.

"Oh, Jack…" Elizabeth whispered with moan when Jack moved down to her neck. The man had completely forgotten the time and place. Everything that had happened and what would happen was meaningless. Every aches of their body had disappeared away from the feeling that the other, the dearest person, was there so close.

"Lizzie…" Jack moaned passionately and at the same time his hands caressed the woman's hips. Jack took a hold of Elizabeth's bum and lifted her to sit on him. "Me little Lizzie…" Jack licked gently the woman's neck and Elizabeth answered with vehement moaning.

"Jack!" Elizabeth breathed when the man's dirty fingers took a hold of her tender breast. "Jack, I…"

"Elizabeth…" Jack growled and caressed the woman's round breast with his hand as he pressed Elizabeth downwards, so that her hot lap pressed against his hardness. "Elizabeth, let's make love… Can ye feel how much I want it..?"

"I can feel it, Jack…" Elizabeth moaned. "Oh, yes I feel it… But I want… I want to talk with you…"

"Let's talk later", Jack growled and pushed his hand under Elizabeth's shirt. "This is our last night… I want ye once more…"

Elizabeth closed her eyes and smiled happily. Jack wanted her and only her. She believed it now. But this night was so short. Elizabeth wanted Jack to know what she had heard. The woman pushed Jack gently away, so that she could look into his eyes. The man breathed vehemently with his mouth half-open and eyes darker because of lust.

"Elizabeth…" Jack whispered. "What now? Ye should believe me, it's not…"

"I believe you." Elizabeth smiled gently and caressed the man's cheek. Jack stared at the woman with amazement and Elizabeth continued: "Forgive me that I didn't believe and trust in you earlier."

"What..?" Jack asked stunnedly and pulled his hand away from Elizabeth's shirt. Jack's touch had caused milk pour from Elizabeth's breast and the fabric was left with wet spot.

"I talked with Giselle…" Elizabeth said and turned serious.

"How could ye talk with her?"

"She is here, just like us too…" Elizabeth let her gaze fall as she realized that Tortuga had been Jack's home. Though the Pirate Captain was rootless, Tortuga had been the place that he had kept as his home port. And now it didn't exist anymore.

"How could she be here?" Jack asked and the passion slowly disappeared from his eyes.

"She came to see me before I came here in your cell…" Elizabeth said. "She told me that Tortuga…" The woman fell silent for a moment.

"Tortuga..?" Jack urged her to continue.

"Tortuga doesn't exist anymore, Jack", Elizabeth said quietly and looked Jack with compassion. "Giselle and many others are here as prisoners of war."

xxx

In the end Jack wasn't so surprised about the fact that Tortuga had been destroyed. He had also heard rumors and knew that it would be just a matter of time when the town of the pirates would be history. It wasn't surprise that it had happened, but of course he was sad for it. So many friends, so many lovely places.. The last place on earth, where he could be himself… a pirate.

"Jack, I am so sorry." Elizabeth whispered and put her hand on her husband's hand. Jack stared at the floor, but raised his head when Elizabeth touched him.

"It's alright, darlin'…" Jack smiled wearily and put a hand on his aching side. "I was expectin' that…"

"Did you know about it?" Elizabeth asked confusedly.

"No, but I guessed…" Jack patted Elizabeth's hand with absent-mind. "There is no place on earth for our kind anymore…"

"Jack…" Elizabeth cried quietly and fright returned back to her mind.

Jack saw her anxiety and pulled the woman in the safety of his arms as he leaned against the wall. Elizabeth leaned against Jack's chest and they were silent for a moment as Elizabeth shed a few tears.

"What else Gis told?" Jack asked.

"I don't like that you use her nickname." Elizabeth complained slightly offended.

Jack didn't take it seriously and he laughed: "Well then, Giselle. Ye are so funny when ye are jealous, luv…" Jack squeezed the woman gently in his arms and Elizabeth laughed too. It was pointless to spend time in silly argues. And now Elizabeth knew that Giselle didn't mean anything to Jack.

"Giselle came to confess her lie to me", Elizabeth said a little embarrassed. She was ashamed how vehemently she had decided to believe in the betrayal. "I am sorry that I believed her then, Jack, but I saw you two and I…" Elizabeth began to explain quickly.

"Hush", Jack interrupted her and pressed gently his finger on the woman's lips. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does, it's my fault…" Elizabeth began to insist, but she was hushed again.

"It doesn't matter at all, Elizabeth", Jack said emphatically and caressed his wife's hair. "All that matters is that we found a way that made ye believe me… Before it's too late."

Elizabeth fell silent and she felt that the fear took a hold of her. She wondered how Jack could be so calm. She asked it aloud, but the only answer was: "The main point is that ye are here, Liz."

Elizabeth was quiet again and listened Jack's constant heartbeat. Soon Jack's hand around her turned relaxed and Elizabeth knew that Jack had fallen asleep. He had been so exhausted and he was sick too. Elizabeth fixed her position in Jack's arms and caressed gently and calmingly the man's tummy. Jack said something in his sleep and continued sleeping. Elizabeth forgot everything else around her and focused to listen the breathing of her husband and the father of her children. The breathing of her dearest. Everything was almost well and Elizabeth closed her eyes.

The young woman and mother fell asleep a few hours before the sunrise.


	17. Chapter 17

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R/NC17

Summary: The hanging

17.

There were thousands of people when first sunbeams shined on the yard of the Port Royal's fortress. The weather was suffocating hot and the dry wind whirled the dust all around the yard. The crowd swarmed around the wooden structure and stared under their caps and hats at the two hangman's noose with fright and admiration.

Red coated soldiers leered with disrespect at the lower-class people, who noised and talked about their everyday lifes and also gossiped about the upcoming great event: the hanging of the pirate. The soldiers kept themselves calm at the edge of the crowding and around the gallows, but still squeezed their muskets tighter than usually.

Hangings were always great entertainment for people. They came to see the hanging even from long distance and if the convict was particularly infamous criminal, hanging place was filled with people. Today there were so many people at the yard of the fortress, so that some of them had to stay outside of the wall. Everybody pushed each other and stretched their heads to see even the smallest glimpse of the hangman's noose and the executioner, who stood at the shadows of the gallows, ready to walk up on the ramp as soon as convicts would be brought to their places.

It was July 1711, the sunny dawn of the dying day of the most infamous Caribbean pirate, Jack Sparrow and his beautiful and almost as famous wife Elizabeth.

xxx

"Jack, I'm scared…"

"I know, darlin'…"

"Are you..?"

"Aye, of course…"

"We can't show our fear to all those people out there… to all those scavengers. But I can't… can't help it..."

"Hush… Don't worry. They can't do anything to us."

"But…"

"They can't. Not as long as ye are here with me."

"Jack…"

Jack and Elizabeth stood next to each other and stared at the great wooden gate that raised ten inches away in front of their faces. The gate led to the yard of the fortress and the couple had been brought there to wait for the opening of doors. When the soldiers would open the gate, Jack and Elizabeth would have to walk to the gallows. The couple was painfully sure that would happen, but they didn't have any options than just surrender and wait for the inevitable.

Their hands were tied, of course, and soldiers had put heavy shackles in their feet to chafe their former scratches and wounds. Soldiers wanted to make sure that the couple wouldn't even dream of escape at their last moments.

They heard shouting and noisy talking from the outside of the gate. Sometimes someone hit the door and it made them both to startle. Voices invaded to their consciousness from small cracks of the thick wooden gate and filled their mind with fear and hopelessness. That crowd had arrived there just to see the famous couple dead. And that crowd was very impatient already.

"Jack…" Elizabeth whispered and glanced the door up and down. She didn't cry at that moment. Neither her gaze wandered because of she would have tried to think of desperate or foolhardy escape plan. She didn't even dream about that. This was the final end.

"Yes, luv?" Jack whispered back to her and let out deep sigh. The fact that Elizabeth, his dear little wife, was in the same horrible situation as he was, didn't stop to frighten him.

Jack's pirate clothes were dusty and dirty, just like Elizabeth's clothes too. The man's dark dreadlocks were more tangled than usually and covered with dust. His handsome face was pale and sweaty, fever kept a tight hold of his body. The wound was badly infected, but it didn't matter right now. Jack had decided to keep his honor of the Captain and his dignity until the very end. He wouldn't break down in front of those people, he would keep his head up. He would do it for Elizabeth, because he wanted to be the man, who Elizabeth had fallen in love with so many years ago. Proud and fearless, the most famous Captain at the Caribbean.

"Jack, I love you." Elizabeth continued and turned to look at her husband with big and wet eyes. Her lower lip trembled fearfully, but neither did she want to break down right now. This was the farewell.

Jack answered to the wife's gaze with eyes weary but warm and he smiled gently. So gently that Elizabeth had just rarely seen that kind of softness on that handsome face. Jack bent towards Elizabeth and pressed soft kiss to the woman's dry and wounded lips. "I love ye too, Lizzie…"

"Jack…" Elizabeth's voice was full of pain and she blinked her eyes.

"Don't ye still let me to call ye Lizzie?" Jack made a little teasing grin on his face.

Elizabeth laughed sadly and pressed her mouth against Jack's mouth again. Tears mixed in their kiss and Elizabeth whispered: "You can call me anything you want, my dearest…"

Suddenly Jack turned serious and he turned as he called the young guard behind them. "Hey, lad! Come here…"

Elizabeth looked at her husband with amazement and then stared at the guard, who also seemed as stunned as she was. The redcoat came to them and asked rudely as usual: "What now, scum?"

Jack didn't care about the tone of the younger man, neither of the nickname; he just said: "Could ye take something for me out of me coat pocket?"

"What is this?" The guard asked suspiciously and glanced at the tired, but determined-looking pirate.

"There is no trick, if ye are thinkin' that way." Jack said seriously and looked at the guard in the eyes. Elizabeth looked at men confused.

The soldier bent slowly closer to Jack and pushed his hand into the pocket of the Captain's long, grayish-blue coat as he asked: "And what shall I search from here?"

"The ring." Jack answered shortly and glanced at Elizabeth as he grinned slightly. The woman stared back at him with brown eyes still filled with tears.

The guard searched it from the Jack's pocket and finally found what he was looking for. He took the item out so that all three could see it. It was the ring that Jack had dropped in his pocket as he had left from the tavern at Tortuga. For the guard it was just a ring, but Elizabeth felt that her heart made one extra beat when she saw it again.

The red coated soldier looked at the ring for a moment and thought aloud: "It surely is a gorgeous trinket. It might be pure gold... I could actually…"

"Ye can believe that it is pure gold. And no, you couldn't." Jack said strictly and then glanced to Elizabeth as he continued: "Give it to me. It belongs to this woman and no-one else."

"You have no right to demand anything, sea rat", the soldier barked and rolled the ring between his fingers with annoying look on his face. "I will get a lot of money from this…"

"Ye… will give that ring to me right now", Jack said with icy voice. His deep voice made shivers go up and down of Elizabeth's spine. In the middle of all misery, Jack still effected on people with his authority and the voice that had used to order people. "That shall be me last will." Jack continued calmly.

The redcoat stared at him for a moment and glanced with disrespect at his shabby appearance. But dark, almost black eyes made a glimpse of hesitation flash in the soldier's eyes. The man dropped the ring in Jack's hand as he snorted: "All the same, you will die soon anyway, scum."

xxx

Jack told Elizabeth to raise her tied hands and he looked at the woman deep in her eyes as he asked: "Do ye still want to be me wife, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth cried and smiled the world's most wistful smile as she answered with husky voice: "Of course I want. I have always been your wife."

Jack put the ring carefully back to its place in Elizabeth's left ring finger. The red jewel reflected light and Elizabeth stared at it with enchanted smile as she moved her finger. Then she raised her eyes to Jack's face, which had warm look and she kissed her husband's soft lips gentler than ever.

But then it began…

xxx

When the doors were opened and guards that held them began to push them forward, nothing could have prepared the married couple to that chaos, which threatened to billow over them and crash them. The crowd shouted and spit on them. They were defamed and dozen hands tried to rip their clothes and hair. Red coated soldiers had created an alley and Jack and Elizabeth were pushed forward in dusty sand, which filled the air when hundreds of feet stamped it again and again. Jack and Elizabeth's worn-out boots turned dusty in dry sand, the sunshine made sweat stream on their tired and dirty faces. Shackles clattered and chafed their feet, the rope squeezed their wrists.

"The rat and his whore!" an old man with a few hair on his head roared as he tried to get past the guard to in front of them. The people repeated his words like grotesque echo. The man reached, as he repeated his words with madness in his eyes, towards Elizabeth and tried to grab of the woman's arm with his dirty hand. Elizabeth kept her head down and tried to go farther from the man. So far as shackles would allow. Jack came closer to Elizabeth and scowled poisonously at the man as they walked closer and closer to the gallows.

"Now you will get what you deserve!" The mad man still shouted and the crowd just turned louder around them. "That kind of ugly whore, who wouldn't be good enough to the dirtiest brothel!"

"Shut up, ye fuckin' wanker!" Jack raged and couldn't stop himself to take a threatening step to the man. Jack noticed that threatening steps didn't succeed quite well when he had metallic shackles around his ankles. Guards also calmed the Captain quickly as they wrenched shackles. Elizabeth tried to press closer to Jack and farther from the man.

"Just let him be, Jack… It doesn't help anything…" Elizabeth mumbled.

Jack didn't answer, just gnashed his teeth furiously and so they passed the man, who disappeared somewhere in the crowd.

xxx

As the gallows came closer, the shouting of the people and the world around them seemed to turn distant. Elizabeth felt like she would walk in her sleep towards the worst moment of her nightmare. Reluctant to experience it, but unable to stop. Jack was the only thing that she took from the outside world to that trance, where her brains tried to put her to protect her.

Jack was here with her. _"Not as long as ye are here with me..."_

_Jack…_

Their steps stamped heavily against the dusty ramp, but for Elizabeth they were just distant noise. She didn't order her own feet, they moved self-actingly and carried her above the crowd, on the wooden framework.

And suddenly they stopped. Jack stopped. The crowd and the redcoats stopped. It felt like the sun had stopped at the sky. There were no soothing wind, the sea didn't smell and there were no sound of the waves. Everyone held their breath.

Elizabeth and Jack's shackles were separated from each other and they stood next to each other on the hatch at the wooden floor. The air stood still, the hangman with his horrible leather hood and gloves put the thick rope around their necks and Elizabeth still refused to realize what was happening.

It was so silent everywhere.

And suddenly the woman saw Alexander's laughing face in front of her. The dark hair fluttered in the wind when the boy laughed cheerfully as his father threw him in the air and then caught him again. It was sunny day, just as sunny as this day was now. But that day was far in the past and she would never get it back…

Suddenly the vision changed into Ron's calm face and his fluffy hair against a soft pillow in the cradle. Elizabeth smiled to her baby and raised her hand to touch him, but then came the pitch-black darkness. Elizabeth realized that she couldn't see anything in front of her. Not the swarming crowd, the fortress or deep blue sky above everything. They had put a sack on her head. The light filtered slowly through the fabric, but Elizabeth couldn't see anything clear. She heard her own heartbeat, blood hummed, her hands trembled and she felt that she would choke.

"Jack!" Elizabeth shouted and turned her head to the left, where she knew that Jack stood. "Jack!" She repeated her husband's name in fright.

"It's alright, luv…" She heard Jack's distant answer through the fabric. "It's… It's over soon…"

"Jack, what..!" Elizabeth almost choked on her own gasping and she began to struggle. The panic got a hold of her. The noise of the people echoed in her ears, the wooden floor swayed wildly under her shaking feet. "Jack, I..! Oh good God, help us..!" Her voice disappeared in the sobbing.

The officer began to list their crimes. "Piracy, fornication, smuggling, murder, looting, pilfering, depravity…" The list felt endless chain of meaningless words.

"Elizabeth… don't flex yer neck", she heard Jack's familiar voice from somewhere far. "Remember what I told ye…"

"Jack, oh God… No!"

"May God have mercy on your souls and may He forgive your sins…"

_It shouldn't go like this… Not at all!_

Thousand thoughts rushed through their chaotic, stagnant minds at those seconds that felt like eternity, when they waited that the hangman would pull the floor under their feet and they would drop into the hot, dusty emptiness, towards their own death which would come before they got the ground under their feet again.

Towards the end.

Neither of them could talk anymore. All had been said, all had been done. They knew each other's feelings and thoughts, but now this was just the last moment left…


	18. Chapter 18

Tenucci

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R/NC 17

Summary: The drama at the Port Royal continues….

18.

Jack Sparrow blinked the sweat that streamed from his forehead, out of his long and dark eyelashes. He could almost smell his own fear. Elizabeth's and his own destiny had been written to end unpredictably cruel way. And that destiny the hangman would fulfill in any minute as he would pull the floor out of their feet. In gallows it might mean just a one thing: death.

The noise of the crowd was just distant babble, which felt coming somewhere under him. For a moment Jack pondered that maybe he was dead and floating somewhere between this world and the beyond, looking from the bird's perspective everything what happened on the earth, the people and his own lifeless body. But he still didn't see more than a moment ago and his body still ached mercilessly, so he must be still alive and awake too.

He couldn't see anything. Or anything else but the bright light through the fabric. That light was from the outside world. The world that would be just a memory there, where the man ended up after his death. Jack didn't know what kind of destiny would wait men, who died on the land nor what would happen to criminals like pirates. He could just hope that if the God was going to the damnation, Elizabeth wouldn't end there with him.

_The whole eternity without Elizabeth… that's going to be enough of damnation for me._ Jack tried again to open the rope around his wrists. He groaned infinitely frustrated and turned his head as the panic tried to crawl in his mind along his back, which experienced shivers.

Suddenly Jack remembered that he had once earlier, years ago and long before his and Elizabeth's marriage, visited at the Davy Jones' Locker, but Elizabeth's resilience and remorse had brought him back. Afterwards he had realized that he had surprised himself at the Locker as he had constantly thought about young, unattainable Elizabeth. At the Davy Jones' Locker, where the ones who died at the sea ended, there was nothing else to do but time to think and Jack had focused the major part of his thoughts to his own charming murderess, like Jack had angrily called her then.

It was ironical that the girl had been the only thing that has kept Jack sane in that awkward, merciless place, where he had ended because of Elizabeth. But eventually Jack had also realized that Elizabeth had acted like a real pirate and kept the crew's life more precious than the Captain, like she should.

In the end Jack had forgiven to Elizabeth and after that journey Jack had conclusively fell in love with the fiery and so beautiful daughter of the Governor, but she was the fiancée of an another man. But it had taken a long time before Jack had admitted that the strong feeling, which he had kept as a weakness, was love.

But now, eternities later, they were married and parents of two children. The children that were somewhere unknown place as Jack and Elizabeth's lives were just about to end. So much had happened, they had experienced great things at the sea and on the land; hilarious adventures, bloodcurdling fights, jealously that had burned them from the inside like poison, heartbreaking pain and laughter, which makes cry; And also burning, gentle and frantic passion in their heated embrace at the Caribbean's dark midnights. Now it all had come to the end. They had undeniably lived amazing life together.

Jack would have wanted to say something to Elizabeth, what would be devoted only for ears of his wife. He would have wanted to thank the woman because she had come into his sordid life and made it important and so rich in every way. He would have wanted to thank Elizabeth for two great sons, who the woman had carried and given birth to, letting them to live in this world with her all persistence and love. He would have wanted to thank Elizabeth for her unselfish and passionate love, which had made the woman sacrifice her whole noble life for Jack.

But now it was too late. Only hope that he could have given something else to Elizabeth than this horrible day, stayed in his mind.

xxx

Elizabeth had lowered her head and tried to calm her breathing with compulsive panting, but she didn't succeed. Her neck was like an open wound and her feet were aching, because she had had to stand still so long and blood couldn't circle enough anymore.

But it was little compared to the horror that strangled her throat. She would have wanted to shout for mercy, she was so scared. Elizabeth had always thought that she would never break down in front of the people that threatened her health and her family and when the death showed its face to her someday, she wouldn't fear it. But she had never imagined dying by hanging.

Elizabeth sobbed quietly, but suddenly she turned alert and raised her face as she heard familiar voice: "Stop! Stop this madness immediately!"

That voice belonged to the old Governor of the Jamaica, Weatherby Swann who was Elizabeth's own dear father.

Elizabeth tried to turn her head like it would help her see something more.

"Father… Help…" Elizabeth begged.

The crowd began to move restlessly and calm talking turned louder. Incredulous comments and disappointed yelling. Something flew near Elizabeth's feet. The Governor's appearing made more excitement to this drama. Elizabeth didn't dare to hope anything, but still her panic loosed the hold of her. But that fear… it remained strongly as her companion like it was going to stay forever in her heart.

xxx

It felt like eternity that something happened. But the hangman had been interrupted to fulfill his job, because the wooden floor still stayed under Elizabeth's feet. Suddenly the woman startled when she felt several heavy footsteps shaking the whole floor. The raising of the dust could feel through the fabric too and people turned more restless. Elizabeth feared that the crowd would turn over the whole wooden structure and she sensed dark shadows moving around her. Then she heard the familiar sound from her childhood. Rushed knocking of buckle shoes against a hard floor.

_Father…_

"Oh my God! Elizabeth!!" Father's terrified voice said and footsteps came closer.

Elizabeth raised her chin towards the voice and tried to get a voice out of her dry throat: "Father… father, I…"

"Oh, my dearest Elizabeth…" The Governor's voice said again. Elizabeth felt how hands grabbed of the sack that covered her head and wrenched the sack off with one movement.

Elizabeth had to close her leaking eyes for a moment as the bright light hit on them after the darkness. Her reddening eyes smarted strongly and suddenly she felt hands wrapping around her shaking body. The scent of father's wig, bristle of his chin against her forehead… Everything felt like Elizabeth was a little child again and just awaken of horrible nightmare. The woman pressed herself near father's old, skinny chest and let out a frantic cry. She couldn't do anything else, but sputter thanks to his father and the Creator of sky and earth.

"My little Elizabeth… Oh my darling daughter… My little girl…"

Elizabeth realized that her father cried also and that made more tears to stream on her dirty cheeks. It felt so incredibly good to breathe air again and be close of dear, accepting person. Elizabeth let out shivering sigh, but suddenly she stopped crying and tried to open her eyes. The sun was ruthlessly bright and dust invaded between her aching eyelids.

"Jack!" Elizabeth shouted and tried to see her husband through the foggy curtain, which covered persistently her eyesight. "Jack..!"

"Still here, luv…" She heard Jack's hoarse voice somewhere in the middle of the brightness. Elizabeth saw Jack, who looked just like a big inkblot through a glass, still standing at the same place, few feet's away, like before.

"Jack, father came to help us!" Elizabeth shouted as she cried and laughed at the same time.

"I noticed it." Jack answered again like somewhere faraway.

"I was sure that we have to survive someway", Elizabeth explained almost hysterically. She was going into shock. "Now everything turns alright…"

"Elizabeth, calm down." Elizabeth's father said as he calmed her with strangely hollow voice. "Soon you will get out of those ridiculous shackles."

Elizabeth began slowly get her eyesight back and at the same time she felt, how somebody opened chains of her hands and feet._ I will get free! We are going to get home together! Home to the sea… to the freedom… We can find our children and soon Jack will see Ron for the first time. And then we will find a home and hide there from the cruel world… Nobody is going to find us…_

Thousands of happy images rushed trough Elizabeth's mind and she would have wanted to jump up and down and hustle the redcoat, who opened chains, but she didn't dare to do anything that would irritate guards.

"Elizabeth, now you will come home with me." The Governor suddenly said and Elizabeth turned her head reluctantly from Jack, who stood still with his head covered with sack. She felt so much pity for Jack that she would have wanted to ask the guard to forget her shackles for a moment and go help Jack first.

"What..?" Elizabeth said with absent-minded voice. Then she asked, like a little girl: "Can Jack come too? I won't come if he can't come…"

"Elizabeth…" The Governor said quietly and looked with his endlessly sad and old, slightly blurred eyes at Elizabeth's dirty and reddish face. Decorations of his dark green coat shined in sunlight and a feather of a light colored tricorne hat fluttered in the wind. "Let's just take those shackles away and go home. You can wash yourself in a real bath and sleep as long as you want… and you will have the best food, what…"

"Father!" Elizabeth shouted as she interrupted her father's fussing and looked at Governor Swann. _Why don't father talk anything about Jack!_ "Why won't you answer to my question?!"

"Calm down, my darling…", the Governor began, but Elizabeth interrupted him by shouting: "Father! Jack will come with me or then I will not come at all!"

Suddenly they heard Jack's quiet shouting from the left: "Lizzie, just listen to yer father. Go home and continue from there, where ye left when ye left here from the first time."

"What are you talking about?!" Elizabeth almost screamed. She got her feet free and she took careless step away from the deceitful hatch, where she had stood for too long already. The young woman almost fell with her shaking, aching feet and for a moment she had to focus to control her body.

The crowd stared at the happening remarkably quieter. Everybody focused to these interesting turns of this living drama. There was fight somewhere at the entrance of the fortress. Apparently somebody thought that he wasn't near enough of the centre of the event.

"Elizabeth…" The Governor said quietly, but determinedly. "They approved this, because you are my daughter and I still have some authority. But for Sparr… for your husband, I can't do anything."

Elizabeth turned to look at her father with upset look on her face. She didn't believe anything what the Governor said. _It can't be true!_ Elizabeth took a few steps towards Jack and then said angrily: "Do you really think that I will let that happen?!"

"Elizabeth, you don't have any other options… Be sensible now…"

"Is it sensible to let my own husband die?! I can't believe that you even want to suggest something like that!" Elizabeth shouted and stared furiously at her father and scowled at guards, who stood a bit farther. The hangman had descended from gallows.

Elizabeth turned quickly her back to her father and walked a bit staggering to Jack. The woman grabbed of thick fabric and pulled gently the sack from covering her husband's dear face and threw the fabric angrily to the dirty floor. Jack's handsome, but tired, pale and sweaty face revealed into the daylight and like Elizabeth before, he also had to close his leaking eyes from the bright light of the sun that surrounded them suffocatingly.

Elizabeth didn't say a word, just closed her eyes and wrapped her hands around Jack's slightly trembling body and buried her face against his chest. Jack still couldn't see well and he pressed his face to his wife's hair and whispered huskily, barely aloud: "Lizzie, oh God, I love ye… I love ye so much… nobody knows how much…"

"I love you too, Jack… I will never let you go…" Elizabeth mumbled franticly against Jack's chest that was covered with sweat and dirt as she tightened her hold around his body. "Nobody will take you away from me, did you hear me… nobody…"

They stood there for a long time against each other and everybody stared at them with dumbfounded looks on their faces. The crowd didn't admire their love; rather disapprove this kind of public emotional feelings between a pirate and a whore. When would the fun begin? People pondered and many said that question aloud.

Eventually Jack whispered to Elizabeth's hair: "Ye heard what yer old man said, Liz…"

"Jack, do not even start", Elizabeth said with a voice filled with anger. "I won't listen a word of this."

"Ye should listen anyway…" Jack begged and caressed his cheek against the woman's hair, because his hands where still tied. "I was expectin' this…"

"About what?!" Elizabeth shouted and turned tense against Jack.

"That yer father will get ye into the safety, but not me. After all, I am more than just a lousy thief." Jack tried to make his habitual grin.

"Jack, don't…" Elizabeth cried.

"Hush… Try to find children." Jack tried to keep his voice calm. Nobody knew how close it was to break.

"Children…" Elizabeth repeated like she wouldn't have thought about the children for awhile.

"Ye said that ye believe that they are still alive." Jack said softly and sometimes coughed as the dust invaded to his nose and mouth.

"I do believe…"

"So there's an order for ye… Make sure that ye will obey it."

Elizabeth looked at her husband's eyes incredulously and shook her head terrified. "Jack, I am not going to let…" Elizabeth began strictly and tears streamed down on her cheeks.

"I am the Captain, so ye have to obey me." Jack reminded as he tried to make some playfulness in his voice.

"I am your wife, so you have to obey me." Elizabeth said and had to lower her head as the sobbing trembled her whole body.

Jack smiled so that small wrinkles appeared under his dark eyebrows. "Ye are right, but now I'm not goin' to do so, though I would want to." His dark eyes sparkled mischievously and he said: "It wouldn't be the first time when I don't do as ye would like, but as I said earlier: I will tease ye in yer dreams. And ye can freely miss me until the day ye die, luv…"

Elizabeth sobbed and sputtered with a painful look on her face: "Oh please, stop joking, you stupid… you stupid…" Elizabeth hit her small fist against her husband's chest and cried. "I won't be willing… I won't… I won't leave you!"

Jack bent down and kept a small smile on the corner of his mouth. Nobody could see what kind of storm he had inside of his soul right then. The pirate bent closer to his wife and said: "I won't go too far. I promise to visit, if those guys out there, where I am goin' won't turn out to be too difficult…"

"Jack, don't talk like that..!" Elizabeth almost shouted and squeezed hysterically of Jack's coat as she stayed close to her man, like fearing that he would quickly disappear as a smoke to the sky.

"Hush…" Jack hushed and glanced over Elizabeth's shoulder at his father-in-law, who gazed at them with sad look on his wrinkled face.

Elizabeth turned also look at her father over her shoulder and asked quietly: "Father..? Make it possible…"

The Governor shook his head with depressed look on his face. Elizabeth sobbed and turned her eyes back to Jack's tangled beard and at the two braids, which were decorated with pearls. At the same time two redcoats approached them. Elizabeth didn't turn her gaze, just stared at Jack's dark eyes more intensively than ever. Her hand played with the other braid, twisted it around the finger and fingered the wooden pearl in the end of it. Jack smiled to Elizabeth; the woman had always liked his beard and said it aloud many times, especially in early days of their relationship at the bed. The Captain answered silently, but gently to the wife's gaze.

The redcoats came to them and the other said: "Lady, we must take you away from the stage now."

They took a step closer to Elizabeth, but the woman said furiously: "Get your hands off me!"

"Lady, please…" The other soldier began.

"What!" Elizabeth shouted and turned towards the man, who had just talked. Once again, this was young, inexperienced man, who examined Elizabeth's reaction carefully.

"Now I am suddenly a 'lady'! Just a moment ago I was a pirate's whore!" Elizabeth hissed.

"Elizabeth, darlin'… Calm down…", Jack sighed and tried to take a step closer towards Elizabeth, who had taken a threatening step closer to soldiers.

"I rather be his whore than live in the middle of you pretenders and idiots with powdered faces!" Elizabeth yelled so that the yard of the fortress echoed with the power of her voice. "Did you hear me?"

The crowd answered with restless muttering, somewhere seagulls screamed.

Pure rage had taken over Elizabeth and now she yelled coarse threats against the red coated men.

"If I had my sword now, I would spear both of you whelps at the same time. You will never sleep your nights safely, if you dare to touch my husband!"

"Elizabeth, oh God how you are talking…" The Governor said somewhere farther.

Elizabeth's brown eyes sparked and Jack laughed nervously to guards: "She is serious, mates… Ye should avoid givin' anythin' sharp to her… At least not in the first six months…"

Soldiers glanced confusedly at Jack and then their, a slightly frightened gaze returned back to Elizabeth, who was shaking because of angriness.

"You be quiet now", Elizabeth said angrily to her husband and stared at soldiers as she would be ready to attack on them even with bare hands. Jack sighed behind Elizabeth's back, but at the same time he was proud of her.

But suddenly several other redcoats climbed up to the wooden stage.

xxx

"Elizabeth, it is time for you to go." Elizabeth's father said when redcoats surrounded Jack and Elizabeth to take the furious woman from gallows. Elizabeth glanced nervously around her and realized that she couldn't defense herself alone and without any kind of weapons. And there weren't all the soldiers of the fortress at the wooden stage. There would always come some more and the couple would never get out of there alive.

Elizabeth turned to Jack again and pressed herself into her husband's embrace as she wrapped her arms around the pirate's neck. Jack buried his face against Elizabeth's hair and whispered gently, reassuring words. Elizabeth raised her gaze and without saying a word, she took Jack's face between her wounded hands. She bent forward and without caring at all of the audience, she pressed her mouth lovingly against Jack's mouth. The woman sighed wistfully as the black beard tickled her face with familiar way. Jack's mouth was still so gentle and softly sensual like before and tasted as wonderful as always. The aching of their bodies, the dryness of their throats and the whole situation in all of its awfulness didn't make the kiss not less enjoyable. They both closed their eyes and let their lips to touch each other for the last time. Elizabeth didn't withdraw though she felt redcoats to grab of her arms and said something of that they should stop this foolishness and now it was time to leave.

Not until soldiers tore Elizabeth with them, the kiss was over. Everything was over. Elizabeth stared Jack when they guided her out of gallows. Jack answered to her gaze calmly, smiling with encouraging look on his face, but deep and dark eyes so endlessly sad. A little, brave grin appeared to the Captain's lips just before Elizabeth was descended from the stage and she couldn't see her own pirate anymore.


	19. Chapter 19

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R

Summary: Elizabeth mourns and decides to do something necessary, but very dangerous. Everything isn't the way as she thinks…

19.

The rain hit the ground heavily and turned the dry, dusty sand into a mud that streamed down cobble-stoned streets. Black clouds floated low and let rain fall on people, which rushed into shelter. It rained also on the mansion, where a lonely woman looked outside of a window. She cried bitter tears together with rain that created beautiful piece of art into the window with raindrops.

Elizabeth Sparrow sat on the window seat that was decorated with velvet pillows at her own luxury bedroom and tried to keep herself warm by keeping her knees tightly against her breasts and wrapping her arms around her knees. She was wearing a long, white nightgown and her hair was wet after bath. Now her hair had been combed and it descended as long curls against her back. The woman's puffy, red eyes stared without seeing anything trough the glass into the misty darkness, which covered the town. The sea was darker grey and fog hid warships, which sailed at the lively harbor and thin palm trees, which tried to fight against powers of the nature at their growing places.

Elizabeth had arrived forced at her father's mansion at noon. The whole journey from the gallows to the mansion she had shouted and demanded the driver of the carriage to turn horses towards the fortress. She had managed to jump off the carriage, but just fell on the street as peoples' staring had surrounded her. She had been dragged back into the safety of the carriage and the journey had continued again.

At the same time the storm had begun to rage as hard wind, thunder and rain above the Port Royal. Elizabeth had looked at the sky and had cried with rain at the yard of the Governor's mansion and she had known that the sky mourned of Jack's death together with her. She had clawed the grass with her hands, the same grass which she had crossed by running to escape from her first wedding because of Jack, and had shouted aloud of her pain as the horrified soldiers and servants had stared at her a bit farther. The lightning had lightened the yard again and again with its bright light.

Eventually her father had helped her up, because nobody else had dared to do that and the Governor had ordered servants to take her inside and the doctor had given something soothing medicine to Elizabeth. Her frantic crying had turned slowly into exhausted sobbing and finally she had closed her soul and entered into the grief and misery, away of the outside world.

Maids had helped undress her dirty clothes and guided her into warm water in the middle of herb vapor. The water had smarted painfully wounds of her body and infection, which she had gotten in the freezing brig of the warship, hadn't healed a bit. She had begun to cry quietly in the bath and had felt herself humiliated under curious gazes of maids. She knew very well that her swollen breasts and stomach covered with pregnancy scars would be the most gossiped thing tonight at rooms of the maids.

_Jack wouldn't care about weaknesses of my body, because he still would think that I am the most beautiful woman in the world despite of all my wounds and scars. Jack would say that a little more weight and scars under the stomach are just the sign that I carried his child and gave birth to a healthy, brave boy. Jack would be proud of me… Jack would love me in spite of all… But he… he is gone now…_ Elizabeth thought and pressed her hand against the cold glass. Elizabeth knew that she would follow Jack tonight if she hadn't had children. But she had to remember the promise that she had given to Jack. She had to find Alexander and Ron.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door. Elizabeth didn't bother to answer or turn her gaze. She hated these people, who hadn't let her go with her husband.

The door opened and she heard a maid's voice: "Lady, your father wants to see you. He asks for you to come to the salon."

"I'm not dressed." Elizabeth said quietly with a rude and bleak voice as she still stared through the glass at the dark town. She didn't want to hear her father's endless regret about that what had happened. Like it had been just a small, unpleasant necessity. Like Jack didn't mean anything and he just had been a nuisance that now had been removed.

"I can help you to dress your morning gown, lady", the maid pretended to be cheery and walked towards the silk gown that hanged from the hanger. "Your father said that you can discuss with him as you wear only this. He actually said that you don't need to exhaust yourself by changing clothes…" The girl lifted the sheer morning gown on her arms and waited patiently as she stood in the middle of the room. Elizabeth still didn't look at the girl, just drew meaningless figure on the steamy window with her finger.

"I want to dress in my black gown tomorrow." Elizabeth said suddenly with a bleak voice.

The maid got confused and moved nervously: "Lady..?"

"My husband is dead", Elizabeth continued. "I have to dress in black as widows do."

"I'll look if your dress is still extant in the room where clothes are." The maid answered obediently behind Elizabeth's back.

"My father doesn't throw anything away", Elizabeth said and her finger stopped on the glass. The maid didn't notice that Elizabeth's gaze had turned alert like she had gotten something in her head.

"I want also that sewer will make me a bonnet of the widow. I will use it always, so that everybody will know my situation." Elizabeth continued a bit more quickly.

"As you wish, lady." The maid said with a little scared voice.

Suddenly Elizabeth raised her head, just like she had listened something. The young girl stared at her clearly more nervously. Elizabeth turned her reddened face towards the girl and said: "Go. I can dress on that bloody gown by myself. Do you think that at the Pearl or at our little house I needed someone little maid helping me to dress my clothes on! The only one I trusted…" Elizabeth's voice changed angry hissing towards the end and the maid dropped frightenedly the dark blue morning gown on the chair. The girl bowed quickly and left the room.

Elizabeth stared after the younger woman and after a moment she got up on her feet. The thick carpet caressed her feet when she walked across the room, past the huge bed to a closet. She knew exactly what she would do and chatting with her father in the late evening wasn't part of her plan.

xxx

Elizabeth hadn't found her pirate clothes from the closet, so probably they had been burnt because of the dirtiness and the smell. They were part of Elizabeth's baleful and shameful pirate life and the Governor wouldn't want anything to remind his daughter about it. _Like I wouldn't remember it my whole life_, Elizabeth snorted.

Elizabeth had soon dressed in her old, dark riding trousers and boots. The gown wouldn't fit in her mission. She had also dressed a shining white linen shirt with wide sleeves and black velvet vest with onyx buttons. Around her neck she had tied a black silk tie. She stared at herself expressionlessly from the mirror of the dresser when she put her hair into a tight bun with the help of hairpins. The candlelight of lanterns played with the shape of her face as it distorted the shape with shadows. On the bun she set a black hairnet that darkened the color of her golden hair. Elizabeth pulled the net over her eyes and set a little black hat on her head, which she also tied tightly with hairpins, so that her head almost ached. Elizabeth stared at her gloomy reflection and then opened a first drawer of the dresser. She had to rummage the drawer for a moment, because it was filled with her old perfumes and other cosmetic. Finally she found an inkbottle, a pen and papers from the bottom of the drawer. They were dusty, but somewhat usable. The part of the ink was dry, but Elizabeth managed to get some useful color from the bottom of the bottle. She began to write her decent, small handwriting with her shaking hand…

_Dear Joshamee,_

_If you get this letter, I ask for you to come to Jamaica as quickly as you can. I and Jack were caught as prisoners at the Racoon Cay Island and we were transported at the Port Royal to be hanged._

_I have to tell you that Jack is…_

Elizabeth's hand began to tremble uncontrollably. She didn't want to put her husband's death to the paper, then it would be more real. Elizabeth didn't want to realize it, not yet… Jack would appear from somewhere, laughing with a twinkle in his dark eyes and he would take her into his arms and kiss her mouth with lips tasting like rum and cigarette. Elizabeth breathed deeply as she closed her eyes; she hadn't time to cry right now. She didn't complete the previous sentence and she forced herself to write.

_This morning, July 2th, 1711, Jack was hanged at the fortress of the Port Royal…_

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes closed and a painful wailing escaped from her lips. But she had to hurry if she was going to accomplish her plan, so she continued as she gritted.

_I am going to pick his body tonight and I want that he will be buried into the sea at the front of Tortuga. I know that he would want the Pearl and all of the crew to be there. I would want you to be there._

_I will wait a week and if you can't come, I will bury him in the waves at the front of our former house. Jack would never want to be buried in the land, though his destiny ended there. He belongs to winds and surges, he is the property of every sunbeam, which glitters on waves and I am going to make sure that he will end up in the kingdom of the Sea Goddess._

_Faithfully,_

_Elizabeth Sparrow_

Elizabeth used a lot of time to write her last name. She did it so meticulously and looked how the pen drew letters in their right places and that legendary name, which Elizabeth kept honorably, appeared into the paper. The woman stared for a moment the letter that she had written and then she put it inside of the envelope.

Then she wrote a little note to her father:

_Father,_

_I can't stay in here, I am sorry. Thank you for what you did, you just meant good, but I will go to find my sons, because only for them I can live. Then I will disappear. Leave me and my children alone. I love you._

_Your daughter Elizabeth_

xxx

Elizabeth walked along a dark hallway towards the library. She knew that her father's office was next to the library and she knew that father had great collection of different kind of weapons from different eras.

Elizabeth opened the door that was made from dark wood and it let out a creak. The woman listened for a moment if someone was coming along the hallway, but she didn't hear anything or see anyone. So Elizabeth sneaked into the library and closed the door behind her as she clicked the door in lock with a key.

Elizabeth reached towards the simple decorated pistol that hanged on the wall and she grabbed it in her hand. It was just perfect to woman's use and small enough to hide under clothes. Elizabeth weighed the pistol in her hand with pleased smile and then put the weapon in her belt. Now she just had to find some gunpowder and shots from somewhere. Without paying attention to the magnificent bows, axes and muskets at the wall, Elizabeth turned on a small lantern and opened a drawer of her father's desk.

She found a box, which she had seen her father to open several times, so the key was easily found under the fake bottom of the lowest drawer. As she opened the box, Elizabeth thought: _Forgive me, father. I have to do this. Soldiers took my money and boys needs food and clothes, as soon as I find them…_

There were couple hundred shillings inside of the box and Elizabeth emptied all silver coins into her pocket. The pocket turned very heavy and the woman thought distantly that she needed to get a coin pouch to money at some point and hide half of the money to somewhere. But she would do it later, first she had to do the last favor to Jack.

She stopped for a moment to stare at the shaking flame of the candle and distant memories tried to come into her mind. But Elizabeth refused them determinedly. When the duty would be done, she would reminisce the dearest person of her life and cry until her eyes couldn't make a single tear anymore. Elizabeth shook her head, put the box and the key back to their places and then got up. She blew the flame off and suddenly heard footsteps and voices from the hallway. Elizabeth froze for a moment and then bent with fright behind the desk. Footsteps came closer and Elizabeth squeezed her pistol in her hand. She hadn't thought that it hadn't any shots left. The woman's breathing quickened in the dark room. She heard voices of two women from the hallway. The other one was her maid and she heard also her own name, but tones of women revealed that they were just gossiping. Elizabeth gritted her teeth angrily.

_Bloody hell, those simple gossiping bitches_, she thought poisonously and hoped that those women would someday experience even half of the pain what she had felt this morning.

Footsteps came closer and she heard a creak of the door. Elizabeth tightened into her place, but women went inside of the next room and closed the door behind them as they laughed. Elizabeth let out a deep sigh and got up to her feet. Her gaze met swords on the wall, the gorgeous foils and epees. Elizabeth smiled bitterly and walked in front of the sword collection. She noticed a few old sheaths hanging in the nail and she took one of them. Then she let her gaze circle around the impressive sword collection. Suddenly her eyes stopped in one of them and a small smile raised the corner of her mouth.

"This is for you, Jack." Elizabeth whispered and reached towards decorated pirate sword with wide blade. Little stones of the handle shined in the darkness of the room.

xxx

Elizabeth rushed, trying to move without a sound across the marble floor to the kitchen door, where she could get out from the back door. A wall clock ticked tirelessly at the corner and it showed that time was almost ten o'clock in the evening. Most of servants of the house had gone sleeping and Elizabeth knew that soon her father would send a servant to ask why the daughter was late.

She would have to get some powder and shots from the storage building and also saddle a horse in the stable. Then she would be ready to go towards the fortress, where the corpse of her dear Captain was kept. Elizabeth tried not to think about anything, she just focused to accomplish her plan determinately.

Nobody would stop her.

The woman opened slightly the kitchen door and noticed that the room was already dark and completely quiet. Moonlight reflected from cleaned pots and glasses, which had been lifted to dry on the towel. The mistress and the cook had already stopped their work and gone to their homes. _That's good_, Elizabeth thought and opened the kitchen door to step inside. But she didn't have time to do it when she heard a voice behind her.

"Elizabeth, where exactly are you going?"

Elizabeth closed her eyes and grimaced painfully as she heard her father's worried voice behind her back. The woman squeezed the door handle in her momentary angriness and then turned calmly as possible to face her father's gaze. The Governor stood a bit farther in the dark hall, front of stairs. He was wearing red velvet morning coat and soft slippers. _Oh God, how old he is_, Elizabeth thought. She forced a calm look on her face and tried to keep the stolen sheath and sword hidden behind her back.

"I just thought… go for a evening walk", Elizabeth lied with a trembling voice. "I hope you don't mind if we talk tomorrow… I'm sure that you understand…" Elizabeth fell silent and once again tears were so close to stream down on her cheeks. She raised the black net from in front of her face. "I want to be alone…"

"Elizabeth-darling", Governor Swann cried and took a few steps towards his daughter.

Elizabeth withdrew instinctively towards the kitchen door. Nobody would prevent her to get Jack out of that horrible place. Not even father!

"Father, don't… don't worry…" Elizabeth sputtered and groped the door handle behind her back. She knew that father wouldn't believe her, but the woman hoped that he would let her go anyway. Father had given up many times to her, so Elizabeth hoped that he would do it this time too.

"Elizabeth, my heart is breaking when I see you like that…" Governor Swann said quietly and looked Elizabeth with sad look on his face. "I have to…"

"Father, no!" Elizabeth interrupted and decided to stop the pretending. "I have to go. I'm sorry that I always let you down."

"Elizabeth, it isn't that way. I…" The Governor began again, but at the same time Elizabeth opened the door behind her back.

"This morning they ripped a heart out of my chest. But I am still the mother of his children, so I have to find them." Elizabeth looked at her father intensively and her voice was rough after crying and shouting.

"Your children are at the orphanage called St. Carolina", the Governor said suddenly. "They are feeling alright. I have taken care of them."

"Father…" Elizabeth sobbed with dumbfounded look on her face and she let go of the door handle for a moment. She was quiet for many seconds. "I-I don't know what to say…"

"They are alright", the Governor repeated gently. "They are great children. I am a proud grandfather…"

Elizabeth started suddenly to cry and buried her face into her hands. She couldn't help herself but ran to her father and into his arms. She was so grateful, so happy that children were alright and father had taken care of his grandchildren despite of it all. Despite that Alexander and Ron's father was a pirate.

"You are free to get them anytime", the Governor promised and then sighed deeply. Elizabeth raised her face.

"This is very hard to me, but even harder is to see your sadness and yearning… towards that man.

"What is hard, father?" Elizabeth asked confusedly and let go of father to stand straight again. The woman raised the net that had fallen in front of her eyes.

The Governor was quiet for a moment like he would consider his next words. Elizabeth sensed that father hid something and soon she became very impatient. "Father?" Elizabeth couldn't help not to say.

Governor Swann raised the blurry gaze of his eyes to Elizabeth, who was painfully curious and he said: "Don't go yet. Don't before you have heard what I need to say to you. It's very, very important, not to mention hard, but I have made my decision…"


	20. Chapter 20

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: PG 13 /R

Summary: Surprises are revealed from the inside of the fortress. Good and bad. But finally especially those good ones!

20.

"Father, what are you talking about?"

"Elizabeth, I never thought that I would end in this kind of situation where I should have to even think more than a second between your happiness and my own benefit… But now this is something more serious…"

Evening had already turned into a night when Elizabeth stood endlessly sad and tired at the hall of the mansion, in front of her was her old father Governor Weatherby Swann. Elizabeth was afraid that father would crush her plans to get the body of her dear husband, the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, for the funeral.

_Father would never let me do it_, Elizabeth thought distantly and stared at her father between swollen eyelids. Was the Governor trying to waste time or what was this all about? In all of her grieving, Elizabeth couldn't do anything to her curiosity and she absolutely wanted to know what was father talking about and what hard decision he had done.

"My darling Elizabeth…" The Governor began and suddenly he sat down on the stairs. The wooden step creaked lightly when Governor sat on it uneasily as he bent his old back. The man closed his eyes for a moment and sighed deeply like he had given up on everything. Elizabeth raised again the black net, which had fallen in front of her eyes. Intolerable silence was only broken by the annoying ticking of the wall clock. Elizabeth hadn't no idea how much the clock was and she didn't even care.

"You are going to hate me when I tell you this", the Governor sighed and wrung his hardened, varicose veined hand that was decorated with a few gorgeous rings.

"I could never hate you, father…" Elizabeth denied immediately with tiredness in her voice. She fingered nervously the pistol that was hidden under her coat.

"I have leaded this island for quite a long time now, so long… that my time… is ending soon." Elizabeth's father said bleakly as he stared somewhere faraway trough the wooden floor. Elizabeth stayed silent; she didn't begin to deny the obvious fact. She didn't want to think that father was old man already and soon she would lose him too.

"But I didn't think that it would happen yet. I thought that I would have the time to find somebody who I trust to continue my work. The King himself trusts in my judgment and he has let me to choose the next Governor for Jamaica. But I haven't found anybody yet…" The Governor frowned displeasedly. "I had never thought that a man like Quentin Milles would be suitable in the lead… He is too warlike, too aggressive…" The Governor rubbed his forehead like he would be extremely frustrated to the whole subject of the conversation.

"Quentin Milles?" Elizabeth repeated lackadaisically when the name brought distant memories in her mind. "He asked me to marry him a long time ago when I was very young, but you weren't willing to give me to him." Elizabeth remembered Quentin Milles from the Royal Navy. Tall, skinny man with dark and empty eyes. Always pondering of new strategies, how to find wanted pirates and criminals. Elizabeth had begged that father wouldn't agree to the man's arrogant proposal.

"Yes, I didn't want to give you to a lower-class man", the Governor answered. Elizabeth understood the meaning of the father's words, but just snorted without caring about it. "But that man is a lord now and he has gotten enormously support at Port Royal by the ones, who want to get rid of pirates. He is aiming to be the next Governor.

"How this has anything to do with me?" Elizabeth asked impatiently and glanced at the kitchen door over her shoulder like she would make sure that the way to the escape would still be there. She was sure that father had secretly called help and now he was just trying to delay Elizabeth. "Why would you give your authority to that man if you don't trust in his ability as righteous leader?"

"I wouldn't, but… if that makes you happy."

Elizabeth didn't understand what the Governor meant and the confusion that glowed in her face made the Governor to continue: "He made me some sort of offer this morning: My power and authority… for Jack's life… and freedom."

xxx

Elizabeth stared with big eyes at her father and she couldn't believe her ears. She almost choked in her pausing breathing and began slowly, more clearly understand what the father had meant by that she would start to hate him.

They had done impudent bargain of Jack's life which had humiliated his human dignity and the father had chosen his power and authority instead of the life of his daughter's husband… The life of a pirate… it meant nothing for the noble! But Elizabeth could have never believed that her father… her kind father could be so cruel and heartless!

Tears rose into the woman's eyes hotter and smarting than before and for a moment she hoped that there would be a shot in her pistol. Elizabeth's small fist opened and closed around the pistol. But she didn't know should she shoot her father or herself…

"Father, how…" Elizabeth sputtered as her chin trembled. Her whole body trembled uncontrollably and she wanted to collapse on the floor into the lovely, dark unconsciousness. _This is too much!_ "How could you! How… how could you!"

"Elizabeth!" The Governor shouted suddenly and his shouting surely awakened the whole house. They heard a creak from upstairs when some maid sneaked to peek what happened at downstairs. The father and the daughter didn't care about it, just stared at each other.

"Listen to me!" Governor Swann begged.

"Why would I listen to you, you… treacherous, sacrilegious… you bloody monster!" Elizabeth spit words out of her mouth and tears streamed down her face. Her mouth gasped for air like a fish that had left to suffer on the land, her feet took few steps back and forward. "You have desecrated Jack's memory! I won't… I will never forgive you..!" Elizabeth's voice broke in the angry sobbing.

"Listen to me!" The father shouted back with hoarse voice. "I haven't made any bargains yet!

xxx

Tears still streamed down Elizabeth's face, but now the painful look on her face had changed into confusion. _What father had just said? I don't understand at all what he is talking about. I don't understand anything anymore…_ She sputtered the question aloud.

"This morning the storm… interrupted that hanging…" The Governor told quietly and got up to his feet as he took a hold of the handrail. "But it wasn't the only reason to quit it. When we left there, someone offered a chance to me… Everybody knows that you are more important than life to me…" The father took a few steps towards his daughter and looked deep into her eyes. "Milles offered me a possibility that your husband can leave from Port Royal as a pardoned man, but to me… to me it would mean giving up all of my authority and duty as the Governor and retirement starting tomorrow."

"Father… Do you mean that..?" Elizabeth sputtered with pale lips, unable to make any words. Though Elizabeth couldn't cry anymore, her eyes still leaked bright tears. Her eyes were so used to cry in these days that she couldn't stop once she had started. The room seemed to circle around the woman, the floor was spinning under her feet. Elizabeth raised the shaking hand on her face like preventing the soundless scream escape in the air and she stared at her father with glazed eyes.

"Elizabeth, I am so sorry about all of this…" The Governor began and raised his hand towards the daughter. But Elizabeth didn't want to hear anything like that, she wanted to hear could it be true!

"Father!" She shouted with sparking eyes under the reddened eyelids. "Father! Tell me!" Elizabeth took a step to her father like she was going to attack on him. Her voice had sounded almost angry hissing.

"Yes…" The Governor whispered wearily and let his hand fall and his shoulders collapse. "It is true and I have decided to accept the offer, though the future of the Caribbean will be uncertain in hands of that Milles, but as long as you can be happy… I can't look at your suffering anymore. You are too precious to me."

The room spun wilder around Elizabeth. She couldn't cry, shout or run. She was so exhausted… But she didn't care about it, though her body ached. All that she cared was what her father had just said and what it would mean!

Elizabeth realized distantly that her father rushed to her with worried look on his face and right before the woman lost her consciousness and fell on her father's old arms, she heard wonderful words from her father's lips: "Little Elizabeth, he is still alive… He is still alive and I will give him to you, it shall be my final deed…"

"Jack…" Elizabeth whispered and tears blurred her eyesight completely before everything turned black.

"Yes, my darling, Jack is alive…"

xxx

The morning sun was bright, it was so beautiful and comforting when it shined trough high palm trees down to sand, which was becoming dry after the rain. Birds spread out their wings and flew towards light grey walls that were built on hills of Port Royal. Clouds had moved away and at the horizon the rest of the grey clouds began to disappear. The people yawned and began to move towards their workplaces and shops.

Elizabeth didn't care a bit that her brown horse was so much ahead of the rest. She rushed the horse that she had gotten from her father, to run faster and the distance between Elizabeth and her father with servants turn bigger. Houses, closed shops and filled wells flashed past her when the woman rode down towards docks and the fortress. Elizabeth smiled as she saw the fortress and she let the wind to mess her long hair.

_Jack, I am coming!_ Elizabeth thought and squeezed leather reins with white knuckles. _Only a moment and then we are together again! I don't care who will be the Governor here, we are never coming back and we're leaving as soon as I will have you with me again!_

_Wait… wait just a moment…_

Elizabeth had been so exhausted at the night that she had awakened not until early in the morning as the darkness was stepping away from the light. She had gotten up quickly from the bed, where she had been carried from the downstairs and she had ran to her father and made sure that he had talked the truth. She had been sure that everything had just been hopeful illusion, hallucination to prevent the pain, but the Governor had been embarrassed and told that he had agreed to consider Milles' suggestion until this morning. Governor Swann had tried to explain that he had been so worried about the peace of colonies of the Caribbean, but the dancing daughter hadn't listened explanations. Elizabeth had cried and laughed at the same time, she had run around the room hysterically as she had rushed the Governor to leave immediately to the fortress with her. Then she had run to downstairs and straight to the outside, rushing across the garden to the stable as the servants had shaken their heads. They all had looked at her behavior and facial expressions like they had thought that she had gone insane, but Elizabeth hadn't cared even a bit. She was just focused to make ready to leave and calm down her heart that was going to jump out of her chest, because it beat so wildly.

Elizabeth had rushed to the stable to get a horse. But then the woman had stopped and suspected once again that everything had been just a dream, but at the same time she had seen her father rushing after her towards the stable and she had believed that maybe everything was true after all. Elizabeth hadn't bothered to be angry to her father, she had just lambasted herself about the fainting. _Why couldn't I get Jack yesterday! Why did I have to be so weak! _But her body had forced her into sleep; she had been so extremely exhausted after so many shocks.

Elizabeth had saddled and led the horse out of the stable. Aches of her body had disappeared and before the Governor managed to get the horse out of the stable, the woman rode out of mansion's gates with golden sunshine shining over her.

xxx

Now Elizabeth was more energetic, more awake than ever! The death of her dearest had just been an awful nightmare and she had finally woken up to this beautiful morning! And soon they would meet each other again…

Elizabeth almost stumbled as she descended on the horse in front of the entrance of the fortress and rushed to guards as she shouted: "Open the door already! Quickly!"

Red coated guards looked at Elizabeth like she had lost her mind and they stood still. They glanced at each other and tightened their hold around muskets. At the same time the Governor rode there with a servant after him. The old man panted after a quick journey and focused to breath as the horse stopped. The animal neighed and moved his massive head up and down. Facial expressions of guards changed more astonished.

"Listen to her", the Governor said as he descended a bit clumsily from horse's back and gave the horse to a stable boy, who had been ready when the Governor had arrived. The Governor's lackey came to stand next to the old man with a document case in his armpit and looked at Weatherby Swann's severity profile as he straightened his wig.

"Open the gate to my daughter. That is an order."

Elizabeth glanced her father thankfully and then looked with a bit self-satisfied expressions at two soldiers, when they opened heavy doors with screech and they began to push doors to apart from each other. Elizabeth couldn't wait any longer and she sneaked inside past slightly opened doors to the yard that was unpleasantly familiar. Now it was empty and gloomy. Even the sunshine couldn't make it seem cozier. The reason surely was that big, wooden gallows that ruled the place in the middle of the yard. For Elizabeth that wooden structure meant memories of painful hours on it and more painful moments after when they had made her believe that Jack had ended his days on that wretched pile of wood.

Elizabeth glanced gallows with ropes swinging in the wind and felt cold, merciless shivers. It had been so close.

_So incomprehensibly, dizzying close… But now everything is alright… soon it will be alright… When Jack is in my embrace again._

xxx

Governor Swann rushed running after his daughter as the servant followed him. Elizabeth had almost arrived to the other end of the yard when she had helplessly realized that there weren't any redcoats, who could have got her husband out of his horrible cell.

"Elizabeth…" The Governor panted as he wiped sweat out of his forehead. He really was getting old, it was too early that the heat wasn't even near the day's highest temperature. Elizabeth didn't bother to pay attention to that, just looked around the fortress.

"Where soldiers are?" She asked without pointing her words to anyone. It didn't matter to her who would get Jack from cold cells, under the ground where the man didn't belong.

"Elizabeth, wait here when I go talk with Lord Milles", Elizabeth's father said, but Elizabeth acted like she hasn't heard anything. "I have to discuss about Sparrow's freedom, before he is able to be free."

"You can't keep him there any second longer!" Elizabeth said angrily and turned to scowl her father. She was so impatient and she didn't want to hear a word about that she would have to wait her husband's embrace longer. "I want that they let him free right now!"

The Governor sighed helplessly and tried to explain to his daughter like to a little child that it would be better to wait a moment. Elizabeth snorted for an answer.

"But what if everything is going to be ruined because you are so impatient?" The Governor said gently like to a 5-year-old whining child.

"Father, I can't wait any more… Jack can't wait any longer…" Elizabeth almost cried and tightened her hold around her new sword. She had kept the sword and the sheath, but of course she had returned her father's money. But she hadn't agreed to gave up the decorated pirate sword, though the Governor had said that it could be a bad idea and very provocative to go into the fortress with the sword.

"You have to be patient", father said gently and touched his daughter's chin encouragingly. "I promise that you will get him soon." The Governor waved the servant to follow and he said to Elizabeth: "Please, be so kind and wait a moment longer… I will now go to meet Milles into his office. It's there at the second floor." The Governor pointed one of walls, where was wooden door with iron hinges. "I promise to come back soon…"

Elizabeth stared silently to the direction, where the Governor had pointed and then she sighed as a sign of surrender.

xxx

Quentin Milles had woken early and now he was examining several warrant of arrests and execution orders when Weatherby Swann was guided into his cozy office at the inside of the fortress. At that moment the dark hair wasn't covered with a tricorne hat and a feather. The arm covered with uniform's sleeve moved above papers when Quentin Milles immersed into his work.

"Ah", Milles said with a wide smile as he raised his eyes, when he heard that someone was coming. He got up from his chair and walked towards the Governor with a pale, well cared hand stretched out to the old Governor. His skin was pale despite of Caribbean's sunshine and short, dark hair just made his skin paler. "Good morning, sir! It's pleasant surprise that you have come to visit this early."

"I wish that it would be pleasant for me too." The Governor mumbled and sat with his servant opposite of Milles. Milles walked to the table that was near the wall and asked joyfully, knowing what they would discuss about: "Can I give you something cold to drink?"

"Thank you, I would like to drink some water, please…"

Soon the Governor stared at the decorated crystal glass, where the water glimmered as it reflected the light and he saw Quentin Milles' dark figure behind it. He felt himself a bit ill, but he didn't care about it. He let out a deep sigh and then raised his eyes to Milles' eyes, which barely hid the impatience and he said: "I have decided to accept your offer."

xxx

Elizabeth walked around in the yard and she had never been so frustrated as she was now. As the time passed she was ready to run into Milles' office and make the negotiation go faster. She had already taken a few steps towards the wooden door, but suddenly a red coated guard appeared from somewhere and asked strictly: "Are you Elizabeth Swann?"

Elizabeth turned quickly towards the man and corrected automatically: "Yes, but my name is Elizabeth Sparrow."

That information didn't seem to affect the soldier, but Elizabeth didn't care.

"Do you have keys to cells?" She asked as she held her breath.

"Yes, that's why I came here", the soldier said bleakly. "Lord Milles sent me to get Jack Sparrow from the section three. You have a permission to come with me."

Elizabeth's face lightened and her smile was brighter than the sun. _Father made it!_ Elizabeth rejoiced in her mind and raised her face to the sky as she closed her eyes for a moment. The guard was puzzled when he saw the woman's happy face and turned away as he mumbled: "This way… Follow me."

Elizabeth didn't hesitate even a second and she rushed after the guard. Soon they disappeared inside of the gloomy fortress.

xxx

The door opened in front of Elizabeth. She had waited for many minutes, which had felt like eternity, at that little yard where the guard had forced her to stay. She would have wanted to follow the guard under the ground to cells, but the soldier couldn't agree to it and he had slammed the wooden door behind him as he had disappeared with jingling his keys. Elizabeth had forced herself to wait a moment and kept her father's wise advice in her mind. This wasn't a good moment to haste!

But now, at last, finally that cursed door opened!

The stifling darkness puffed from the inside like a smoke, but there was a man in the middle of it. He stood there as he rubbed his aching wrists, where shackles had just removed. He stood there dusty, dirty, bent, but very alive. His dark coat was covered with dust and the tricorne hat was gone as it revealed dark brown, tangled hair. He stood there as just a shadow of former vigorous himself, but still he was more than just a shadow.

_So much more… Jack._

Elizabeth felt like her heart had stopped beating because of the sight. The woman took her hand on her chest instinctively and felt how it moved passionately up and down. _Jack is really there! My own pirate! Funny, obstinate, a little bit crazy pirate! _Elizabeth didn't know should she fall on her knees and say a prayer or shout for happiness until her lungs would be empty. She wanted to do something to let out the enormous joy and happiness, but suddenly she couldn't move. Jack mesmerized her once again and nailed her feet on the sand. Only Jack had the power to do it and that power had gotten stronger today. Elizabeth raised her hands towards Jack and whispered: "Jack..?"

The man in front of her raised his head. Trinkets in his dreadlocks clinked quietly. Elizabeth noticed that Jack had put his red bandana over his other eye. She frowned and felt concern of the condition of her dearest, because something had surely happened, but Elizabeth couldn't care about it now. Jack was alive! That was the main thing!

And once again they were there near to each other. But Elizabeth wanted even closer. She took a step forward and whispered like a shy girl: "Jack… It's me…"

The Pirate Captain finally raised his gaze and the glance of his other healthy, dark eye pierced Elizabeth's heart and her soul. That gaze had pierced them with its warmth and power so many times before, but now it felt stronger than ever. How somebody's gaze could feel so… real! So true!

"Elizabeth…" Jack's voice was just a hoarse whisper, but it bounced from walls at the little yard and was left to float in the middle of sunbeams and dust.

A small, undefined voice escaped from Elizabeth's mouth and she ran like in an slowed down dream towards her husband. The distance between them disappeared and tears of pure happiness reflected the bright light and made Elizabeth's cheeks look like they had been decorated with diamonds. The woman ran straight to Jack's open arms and wrapped her arms around neck of the dirty, shabby and too much experienced man as she gasped incredulously like she wouldn't believe that he was truly there.

Without no doubt, at that moment Jack was exhausted and very sick man, barely sane after horrors at gallows and inside of the cell, but he was able to find a bit of strength and he lifted Elizabeth, who was crying and laughing at the same time, in the air and spun her around as he kept his forehead against hers. Elizabeth took Jack's head between her hands and enjoyed the touch of the man's skin against her own, like it was long yearned drug. When Elizabeth's feet met the ground again, Jack closed his eyes and couldn't say a word for a moment. And he didn't have to, neither one of them had to.

"Princess…" Jack whispered and tiny, tired grin made his gold teeth flash between his lips. That was enough for Elizabeth and she tightened her hold around the man, because she didn't know how to express her feelings into words. Jack knew those feelings without telling it aloud and squeezed the woman against his body as he listened his wife's laugh like the most beautiful music.

"Are ye alright?" Jack asked quietly and Elizabeth's laughter stopped for a moment. She still had the smile on her face; it would stay for very long time.

"Me?" Elizabeth asked incredulously. "I should be the one who is asking that from you, my dearest."

"I'm always trying to be a gentleman." Jack laughed.

Elizabeth still laughed with tears falling down on her cheeks. Jack was himself again. Nothing would make him lose his urge to say jokes!

"What happened to your eye?" Elizabeth asked with worried voice and raised her hand towards Jack's eye that was covered with the bandana.

Jack withdrew a bit farther and growled quietly with a smile on his face: "Don't worry about it, luv…"

"But…"

"Don't worry…" Jack's smile was warm and loving. He tightened the hold around Elizabeth's waist.

"Am I not allowed to take care of you now when I got you back to me?" Elizabeth shouted and made Jack laugh. "You don't know how horrible the last night was! I…" Elizabeth almost began to cry again, but Jack put his finger on her lips.

"I am here now…"

"Yes, you are… but I felt like I would die, when…" Elizabeth said and stared at Jack's face. Her hands fingered Jack's dirty clothes and dark hair.

"Hsshhh…" Jack hushed and pulled Elizabeth in his arms a bit tighter. His hands caressed the woman's back passionately and the pirate buried his face into Elizabeth's hair. The scent dazed Jack with happiness and he whispered lovely, little words into his wife's ear.

Elizabeth held her dearest close to her like he held her and she raised her eyes and smiled to the sky that was endlessly blue. There weren't any clouds and Elizabeth felt like they would fly over those high walls that surrounded them and the couple would fly through the air, above the fresh scenting sea and descend to the safely familiar deck of the black ship and continue their journey forward and never stop.

The sun continued the rising like it would never go down again. It lightened the sea and the shore, where grass swayed in morning wind and dewdrops fell down to ground. Birds circled ships, which returned from night fishing and huge warships had been tied into docks like sleeping, dangerous animals. Sunbeams bounced from windows and waves of the sea, they rushed along the cobblestoned streets, walls of houses and cold stonewalls of the fortress. Those walls had lost their power and the coldness had to withdrawn away of sun's warmth. Inside of those walls stood two people, pressed against each other, but now it wouldn't matter if they were standing at the most windy and farthest hill. Nothing would stop them anymore, now when they had chance to be there witnessing each other's endless love. They lived their dream, the same dream that had fascinated them before they had even met. But now it tasted better and it had a meaning, when it was experienced with the one and only, true dearest. It was finally there, they just needed to reach towards it and take it into their hands. It was perfect… it was everything.

It was freedom.

xxx

Elizabeth smiled to Jack and he answered to her smile with wearily happy. They couldn't do anything else but held each other and stare each others eyes with smiles on their lips. Elizabeth was the first one, who forced herself into the reality and suggested that Jack needed to rest. When Jack was going to say bravely that he would be fine, footsteps came closer to them. Elizabeth turned to look and saw a young redcoat rushing to them with very worried look on his face.

Before Elizabeth managed to say anything, the soldier shouted: "Lady, your father… Come quickly!"


	21. Chapter 21

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: R / NC 17

Summary: HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY

21.

Elizabeth walked stairs down from the backdoor of the mansion's guest house to soft grass. She was wearing her nightgown and wrapped her arms around her as the warmth of the bed and Jack's body disappeared from her body at the outside. She was barefoot, but still walked a few feet away from the house.

Once again it was new, early morning. The sun was just rising behind the sea in the east and dewdrops had appeared on bright green grass and leaves of palm trees, where exotic birds and other animals hid.

The woman breathed fresh, cold air that soon would change heavier because of the hot weather. It was July, the warmest time of the year at the place, where winter was unknown time. The hem of Elizabeth's sheer, white nightgown swayed in the wind and it was wet as she had walked on dew. The young woman raised her eyes as she wiped hair on her face behind her ear. She looked across the yard to the opposite side, where the main building was.

Elizabeth's gaze wandered on dark windows of the second floor and deep sigh escaped from her mouth that reflected her feelings of nostalgia and relief. Up there, at his own bedroom, her father rested on his bed. He was sick, but still in books of the living.

The Governor had given up of his authority for Elizabeth's husband's life and the happiness of Elizabeth, but shocks and also yesterday's hot weather had been too much for the old man. He had gotten stroke when he had been leaving from the fortress after negotiations. Of course Elizabeth had been grateful that her father was still alive. _Something worse could have happened_, the woman pondered as she sighed again. The doctor had said that the Governor would recover, but it could take a long time. Luckily the seizure had been mild and the old man's healthy lifestyle had saved a lot. When the Governor would recover, he would move to the Jamaica's countryside to a cozy house, where he could live the rest of his life. In the end everything had ended well.

xxx

Elizabeth's breath steamed lightly and the woman woke from her thoughts as the coldness made shivers crawl on her spine. _It's better go inside_, Elizabeth thought and turned her back to the mansion._ Before I will end up at the bottom of the bed. After all, I am just healing from my infection… _Elizabeth thought about aches of her own body, which she had gotten after rough experiences. Her breasts were so badly infected that for now she couldn't breastfeed. The woman hoped that she could feed Ron as soon as he would be in her arms again. Elizabeth squeezed her hold around herself as she missed so much her little baby. It had been too long when she last time took care of her baby.

_But soon we are together again…_

Elizabeth looked at the small building, where she had spent the last night. It was magnificent too, but still simpler beside the Governor's residency. Ivy climbed up along the white wall and wrapped around the balcony's iron handrail of the second floor. Elizabeth looked at the guesthouse, where her father had allowed her and Jack to stay until they could get their children from the orphanage and leave from Jamaica.

Jack was free, but it wasn't safe to stay in Port Royal with his family, especially now when the Governor had changed.

After leaving from the fortress, Jack had barely strength to travel all the way up to the mansion. Several wounds and abscessed gunshot wound, which made fever high and the starving at the cell had made the Pirate Captain weak.

When the Governor had been safely resting in his bed and the doctor had arrived to take care of the old man, Elizabeth had gotten into work at the guest house and she had ordered Jack to go to bed immediately, without listening his protests. Jack hadn't enough strength to resist and he had literately fallen onto the bed of the biggest bedroom of the house. Elizabeth had taken the part of a real housewife and ordered strictly a maid, who had waited outside of the room, to get some hot water and bandage, so that she could wash the Captain and clean his wounds. The reluctant, strongly religious old maid had squeezed her mouth into tight line and disappeared to get items that Elizabeth wanted as she mumbled something about godless sinner, who had enchanted the master's daughter.

Elizabeth had undressed dirty clothes from the almost unconscious man and thrown them to the blushing maid, who had stood behind her back and stared at Jack. Elizabeth had ordered the maid to run immediately to the laundry room and begin to wash clothes. As quickly as the maid's feet had ran into the laundry room, had began gossips about the real pirate, the most infamous one, who was in the Governor's guest house. Soon the whole house had been full of mean, frantic gossips, but Elizabeth hadn't cared about it, just listened sneaking footsteps behind the door as she had washed calmly Jack's body and cleaned the infected wound with items that the maid had brought. Jack had looked at her and Elizabeth had smiled gently and soothingly as she had removed the dirty bandage.

She had heard giggling from somewhere of the hallway, but Elizabeth hadn't cared the foolish behavior of maids, just made sure that those too curious, horny teenage girls, like she called them, hadn't dared to peek her handsome husband.

"I let lasses look at me." Jack had naturally joked in half-asleep.

"Ha, you fool, they should look someone else," Elizabeth had said angrily. "Little girls, who blush just when they hear a word 'man'…"

"Oh, how grown-up ye are right now", Jack had mumbled, grinned and patted a little clumsily Elizabeth's bum. Elizabeth couldn't help but to laugh. Jack had continued with a grimace, because the wound ached. "Ye are jealous again, darlin'…"

"What if I am", Elizabeth had answered and pretended to be angry as she had put the clean bandage on the wound. "You are mine and I won't let any sweating, pimply girls to come here and touch you…"

Jack had laughed to his woman's petty anger, but he had been too exhausted to laugh very long.

"Yes I am… I am only yours." He had said pleasedly and soon he had fallen asleep when Elizabeth had cleaned his wound silently, but smiling.

xxx

Elizabeth opened quietly the door to the bedroom, where Jack still slept in the middle of white sheets. It seemed like the room and the person wouldn't fit together, like Jack had looked more familiar with red satin sheets of his own cabin's bed than lace decorated sheets of the Governor's guestroom, but in the end Elizabeth didn't care about it. She was just happy when Jack really slept there and he wasn't just her hopeful dream. The woman looked at her husband from the door and smiled gently to Jack's calm expression, when he lay relaxed on the massive bed. The body that the Caribbean sun had tanned into bronze brown was very visible until the waist and after that it disappeared under the sheet. Black hair spread against the white pillow as pearls and trinkets glittered when first sunbeams shone through the window. Jack slept with his face towards Elizabeth, wound up and he sniffled strongly in his sleep. Elizabeth hoped distantly that Jack wouldn't have seen nightmares of the recent events.

Elizabeth closed the door behind her and walked to the bed. She was a bit worried about Jack's weight-loss and about that the man had been too tired to eat anything else but few spoonful of soup that Elizabeth had half-forcefully pushed into the pirate's mouth. He had lost too much weight during the imprisonment and she could clearly see shapes of ribs under his bandage. The other thing what Elizabeth was worried about was Jack's right eye. Jack had hurt it when guards had treated him violently and rudely and now the whole eye was bleeding and swollen close. Elizabeth had tried to clean it and put a bandage to cover the eye, but she couldn't stop fearing that maybe Jack would never see with it again. But at the same time Elizabeth knew that Jack would survive and soon return back to himself again. The man just needed a few days of rest and few meals… maybe a little rum too and he would be cheerful, funny and charming himself again.

Elizabeth climbed into the bed and raised the sheet. The woman couldn't prevent her gaze to fall down and little blush and girlish smile lightened Elizabeth's face as she lay next to her husband and wrapped her arms around him. Elizabeth laughed to herself as she thought that Jack still had the same kind of effect in her like in those blushing maids, who argued at the kitchen who would be the one to carry the tray to Jack's room.

Jack grunted pleasedly in his sleep and he also wrapped his hand around the familiar, feminine body and buried his face against Elizabeth's neck as he inhaled the sweetly familiar scent of his wife.

_Just wait when you will get better, my dearest…_ Elizabeth thought as she still smiled and she was very aware of the nakedness and closeness of her dear Captain. She felt that her heart beat faster just because of the thought and she pressed her forehead against Jack's as she caressed the nape covered with black hair. _Just wait when this all is over, children are with us again and we are somewhere far away, just you and me at somewhere quiet place… Then I will not stop you…_

_No… I will absolutely provoke you._

xxx

Later on that day, Elizabeth had already dressed and done some work like taking care of Jack's clothes and she had gotten Jack's weapons back from the prison. She had also ordered to make dinner and while she was walking from the kitchen, she visited in the pantry, where they kept wines and other drinks. She grabbed a dark green bottle with her and then returned to Jack, who she guarded like an eagle. Elizabeth feared every time when she walked into the room that Jack wouldn't be there, that he would have disappeared like ground would have swallowed him or like smoke into the air. That his death would be true… But there Jack lay and this time he kept his face towards the window when Elizabeth came into the room. The sun shone lower behind the window and kissed with its last sunbeams Jack's chest and tattooed stomach.

Elizabeth reluctantly turned her eyes away from that sight and glanced at the wall clock. Soon would be time to leave to get children. She had sent a word to the orphanage that she would pick up Alexander and Ron in the evening and children have to be ready. The woman almost laughed aloud happily as she knew that soon her whole family would be together again after so long, too long time.

Suddenly a voice from the bed said with a familiar, playful tone: "I haven't slept in this kind of magnificent bed for awhile…" Jack turned his face towards Elizabeth and laughed a little sleepily at his wife's stunned face.

"Though I maybe think that me own bed is better… But any bed is cozy as long as ye are there also.."

Insightful smile appeared to Elizabeth's face like bright light had lightened her face and she rushed across the floor as she shouted: "Jack! You are awake!"

Jack laughed and straightened out his hands towards the woman and then he took her into his arms. "Of course I am! I don't want to sleep the whole day when I have better things to do…"

Elizabeth smiled and held him tightly as she was careful with his wound.

"And what are those better things to do?" Elizabeth asked and bent over Jack's face as she desired the touch of his lips. She put the rumbottle on the bedside table. That should wait now.

"What would ye think?" Jack grinned as he took his hand on Elizabeth's nape and pulled the woman's head closer that he could kiss his wife gently on the mouth.

As their lips touched each other, Elizabeth closed her eyes and let her fingers caress Jack's tangled dreadlocks. She answered to the kiss with her all yearning, love and passion. She had an endless storage of those

feelings to that man and she gave it all without being ashamed and stingy. For so long she had waited for this moment. The moment that they would be together again without danger and mocking glances.

Jack started immediately to get more wilder because of their kiss and he wrapped his arms roughly around Elizabeth's waist as he then moved them to caress the woman's nape and back. Elizabeth moaned against Jack's mouth and turned instinctively from over him on her back as Jack followed immediately her movement and moved on her as their lips never parted.

"Should we lock the door, luv..?" Jack grunted into Elizabeth's ear with voice filled with passion and sucked gently a pearl earring into his mouth. "Or do ye want that yer maids will have some more to gossip about..?

"Jack… Ooh…" Was everything that Elizabeth was able to say as Jack's hand moved uninhibitedly to inside the neckline of her dress. He began to squeeze her other breast and play with her hard nipple. "Jack… You are sick…" Elizabeth tried to say, but at the same time she arched her back as her body answered to Jack's touch like beautiful instrument answers in the hold of a talented musician.

"Exactly, I am sickly in love with ye", Jack grinned and already opened Elizabeth's dark green dress and fumbled his wife's perfect breasts. "I'm in my best condition… Don't worry at all…"

"My dearest, I don't want that something happens to you when we make love..." Elizabeth said playfully as she breathed passionately when Jack laughed and began to suck Elizabeth's breast. A moan escaped from Elizabeth's mouth and she grabbed of Jack's head to get more of his mouth's gentle, hot touch and the tickling of the black beard against her skin.

"Do ye hint that I am in the age of heart attacks?" Jack blamed and held his laugh as he drew invisible line between Elizabeth's breasts with his tongue. "That me heart can't stand any shaggin' anymore?"

"Jack, I don't…" Elizabeth began with a giggle and let out a deep sigh when other breast got the same gentle treatment also. Her thinking was turning a little difficult.

"Then what..?" Jack mumbled as he licked wet milk from the nipple.

"I just… I don't want that you stress yourself yet…" Elizabeth sighed when Jack bit her chin and moved better on her as he captured her body between himself and the bed.

"I turn more stressed if I won't have ye." Jack growled against Elizabeth's lips and made the woman smile happily. They kissed again and not a single protest appeared to Elizabeth's mind.

Her world was disappearing into gentle, passionately strong mist of lust and she closed her eyes as she caressed her husband's face, which part of it had been covered with bandage, repeating Jack's name, sucking the name in her mouth like sweet candy and enjoying the pirate's talented hands and lips, which made lovely sensations to her. She couldn't resist anymore and pulled Jack more closer to her as she wrapped her legs around his waist and hands around his neck. As Elizabeth begged more deep kisses, Jack just made a quick, but hot kiss on Elizabeth's lips and told his wife to get up on her knees. Elizabeth did as she was told as she grinned to Jack's rush and at the same time the man began to pull the dress off her. Surely Elizabeth understood her lusting pirate, who had slept with her over a year ago and she let willingly him to undress her. She wanted it as much as he did.

Elizabeth's dress flew on the floor and Jack took a hold of her naked body like the owner as he bent to devour with his hungry lips on her breasts, squeezing her bum with his dirty fingers and mumbling naughty suggestions against her skin. They sank into the bed and wrapped their naked bodies together as they turned more enthusiastic.

"Jack… Oh… Please… I have waited for so long…" Elizabeth sputtered when she felt Jack's fingers moving up on her thigh. She was so hot, so ready for Jack that she made Jack gasp against Elizabeth's neck as he felt it on his fingers and on his whole body.

"Oh… I am comin' to it, luv…" Jack moaned as he moved his fingers closer to sensitive stop and Elizabeth moaned even more wildly into his dark, already sweating hair.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door and before the couple managed to react aloud, the door opened and there was a maid with a pile of Jack's clothes. The girl stared in shock at two panting, naked person. Her eyes saw Jack's firm butt that was quite visible in between Elizabeth's thighs and then she turned her gaze away as red blush spread over her face.

Elizabeth with messed hair, Jack on her, stared at the maid and then managed to say with her hoarse voice: "L… Leave it there…"

Jack tried to prevent himself from laughing to the amusing situation and glanced at Elizabeth's red face as his eyes sparkled mischievously. The girl stumbled to the bureau and same time Jack pulled the sheet to cover himself and his wife. Elizabeth had recovered from her shock and hid under the sheet with blushing face and made Jack chuckle more. The pirate rolled beside his woman, leaning against his elbow. He was amused and somewhat displeased to the interruption, but naturally he wasn't embarrassed at all, just followed calmly with his healthy, dark eye how the maid put his clothes on the bureau and then walked to the door.

"Mister Swann… asks you to come to dinner with him at the mansion." The girl said barely aloud as she still couldn't look to the bed. The maid turned to leave. "He wishes you to be there in fifteen minutes…" The girl left the room quickly and closed the door.

Elizabeth hid a moment under the sheet and waited that the worst embarrassment would disappear and then she looked at her husband smiling ashamed. Jack let out a deep sigh and lay on the bed as he yelled: "Is every goddess of the sea and destiny against me when they won't allow me to shag me own wife..?!" Jack rubbed his healthy eye with a frown and Elizabeth began to laugh. "I am goin' insane soon! It's not healthy to be without yer sweet embrace for this long! Ye know… anythin' can happen to me if I can't…"

"Oh, poor man", Elizabeth pitied as she tried not to laugh and put her finger on Jack's lips. "We have time…" She said gently and kissed Jack's nose.

Jack looked at the ceiling with a sigh and pulled his wife in his arms for a moment, before they would obey the Governor's request.

xxx

St. Carolina's orphanage wasn't one of those pleasant looking houses at Port Royal. It was an old, gloomy stone house in the centre of the town, near the cathedral. The paint of the walls had decayed in the heavy rains and the heat of the sun. It was one of the oldest buildings at Jamaica. It had been monastery, but now children, who had lost their parents, lived there.

Elizabeth opened an iron gate and thought with fear what her eldest son had pondered in his little head while she had been gone and he had been dragged around the Jamaica. _Will he be angry to me? Will he blame me for abandonment? Am I a bad mother? _Elizabeth pondered and without noticing, she whispered her questions aloud in the darkening evening.

"Ye are not a bad mother, darlin'" Said Jack, who followed his wife to the orphanage. He had dressed in his own clothes and the sword swayed in its sheath against Jack's hip. "Ye are the world's best mother… just believe it."

"Then why I don't feel like it?" Elizabeth asked and walked to a small garden, where grew just one tree inside of a high hedge. _How gloomy place for children…_

"Ye change yer mind as soon as kids see ye." Jack calmed and fixed the bandage of his eye under his tricorne hat. He was secretly a little nervous to see his sons. But still he waited for it so much. He wanted to feel proud when he would see his lively and wild firstborn and younger Ron, who he hadn't even met yet. Jack was a bit displeased that he wasn't so healthy, because he never wantsed to scare children or hurt their feelings. He had done it enough already.

Elizabeth had told Jack to go to sleep after dinner, but the man had stubbornly wanted to come with his wife to get children. Elizabeth hadn't had any other choice than to agree, though she had promised that she would bring children immediately to Jack at the Governor's guesthouse, but Jack hadn't wanted to lie down anymore.

The gate creaked and closed behind them. A shiver went through Elizabeth's body, but still she was impatient to go inside and see her children again, whatever Alexander would think of her… She began to walk on a sandy road to the door and Jack followed behind her as he limped a little.

xxx

Elizabeth and Jack walked in a deserted main hall that was lightened with few candles on the walls. They didn't see anyone, apparently children were sleeping already. It was about nine o'clock. The marble floor echoed of their footsteps and the sound bounced from walls, when they took a few more steps past old paintings, which portrayed gloomy and angry women dressed in black and white. _Those must've been abbedissat of the former monastery,_ Elizabeth pondered and glanced at the women's clothes. The rustle of her hems disappeared and steps of Jack's boots stopped when they suddenly stopped to listen voices from the upstairs.

Jack looked at stairs and suddenly a little boy ran down stairs. An angry woman followed him and she was dressed in simple black dress and a white bonnet. Elizabeth eyes widened and she took her hand on her chest when she recognized her own little Alexander.

"Stupid bitch!" Alexander shouted with his high-pitched child voice and ran faster down stairs. Elizabeth stared at the boy and didn't even realize to start scolding the child's reckless running in round stairs. Jack didn't even realize to start laughing at the boy's rude manner of speaking.

"Come back, you little monster!" The nanny yelled and suddenly she noticed the couple, who stood at downstairs. The woman stopped in stairs as she breathed stunnedly: "Oh, you are here already!"

At the same time, Alexander jumped from the last step to the marble floor. The boy was so enthusiastic that he hadn't even noticed the woman and the man at the main hall. The boy raised his eyes and stared expressionlessly at the beautiful woman, who had dressed in green dress and stared at him with tears falling on her cheeks. The woman let out a shivering sigh and descended to crouch as she spread her arms and laughed: "Alex-dear… Mom is here..!"

Alexander glanced quickly to Jack, who stood behind Elizabeth and waited how the boy would decide to react. Alexander's face was full of disbelief that soon changed into pure confusion of a child. Jack took a step closer to his wife and then set his hand on her shoulder as he said: "Well, son, are ye not goin' to say hello to yer mother?"

Apparently at that moment Alexander decided to believe that father wasn't just hallucination and a little voice escaped from his mouth: "Dad?"

"Yes, it is me." Jack answered as he smiled carefully to his son.

"What are you doing here?" Alexander asked in disbelief and scratched his head.

"I came to get ye and yer brother together with yer mother." Jack said calmly and squeezed sobbing Elizabeth's shoulder. The woman squeezed his hand and waited impatiently that she could embrace her son.

"Why you weren't at home?" Alexander asked tirelessly and crossed his arms like he had seen grown-ups doing.

"Ouch", Jack mumbled and sighed deeply. _How can I explain this?_ "I've been travellin'."

"Where?"

"Here and there. But now I am here with ye."

Alexander still looked at his father in disbelief and Jack had hard time being serious as he saw his son to raise his chin a quite familiar, proud way.

"Why weren't you taking care of us? I mean… mom and Ron. You don't have to protect me."

"Is that so?" Jack raised his eyebrow as he smiled.

"What are you doing here, I thought that you should be on your journeys?" The boy asked again as he put hands on his hips. Elizabeth smiled to Jack without moving her eyes off Alexander. The boy was so cute when he tried to be like a grown-up man.

Jack still tried not to smile and he said as seriously as he could like he would have been talking with a very important person: "Yer mother sought me, because she needed me help. And here I am now."

"But you should have realized to come here without that mom needed to send us here and there. She could have been with us and never would have needed to begin to seek you." They heard self-satisfied answer. Alexander took even more manly position and looked at his father defiantly. Elizabeth almost chuckled and looked at Jack, trying not to laugh as she cried in happiness.

Jack couldn't prevent himself to grin anymore and he answered: "Ye are absolutely right that I should've realized it myself, but ye see… those kind of brilliant ideas don't appear into me head like to ye and yer mother…"

"So you have drunk too much rum again?" The boy asked immediately. At that moment, Elizabeth couldn't hold her laugh and she chuckled as she wiped her eyes. Jack kept his face admirably calm except little grins and he said: "That's got somethin' to do with it."

"What happened to your eye?" Alexander worried and took a step closer to his parents. The nanny went back to upstairs, apparently to get Alexander's items.

"That's a long story." Jack answered with a laugh.

"But I want to hear it." Alexander said quickly and Elizabeth like Jack too, laughed to the familiar determination.

"I promise to tell it until the very end", Jack answered. "Now yer mother had waited a long enough."

Alexander's gaze returned back to Elizabeth and suddenly the boy seemed to realize that his mother was really there again with her safe and warm embrace. The child's dark eyes looked at the woman with distress and soon eyes were filled with tears when Alexander decided to be just a 6-years old, lost little boy. Elizabeth bit her lip while new tears of happiness streamed from her eyes. She spread her arms once again and waved Alexander to come to her.

For a second the boy stood still and then began to run. He jumped to Elizabeth's arms and wrapped his little hands around mother's neck as he was already crying. Elizabeth raised the boy in her embrace and tightened her hold around the child's body as she gasped and sputtered soothing words into his blackish brown hair.

_Finally we are together again… finally!_

Jack looked with a smile at that reunion and he was pleased that the boy hadn't blamed him too much..._Not yet anyway_… Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a baby crying. Elizabeth was still too focused embracing and soothing Alexander, so that she didn't pay attention to the sound. Jack turned to look at stairs and noticed that the nanny had come back. In her other hand she was carrying a little bag and on her other arm was a little baby crying. The quite old woman looked at the sobbing mother and the son and then at the standing man, who apparently was a pirate. The woman didn't seem to be afraid at all. She was looking like a woman, who had seen and experienced quite a lot in her life and so she didn't bother to fear a one pirate.

"I was told that you are coming. Here are children and their things." The woman swayed Ron in her arm, but the baby was apparently angry when he had been awakened from his sleep, dressed and began to carry somewhere out of the warmthness of a cradle.

Jack took a careful step closer as he was curious to see the baby's face. The woman smiled amusedly to his confusion and said: "Yes, he is yours, sir. No doubt about it. The similarity is impressive."

"Really?" Jack laughed a bit nervously about what he should do and came to see his child closer. The small, red face was crying unpleasantly and tiny fists waved in the air. Jack turned his head as his other eyebrow was stunnedly raised and he looked the child like in several perspectives. The baby didn't even seem to notice him, just cried and yelled in the nanny's arm.

Elizabeth and Alexander's crying and excited voices talked a bit farther. Elizabeth mentioned Ron's name and Jack guessed that she had already noticed the baby's presence. But Jack was too enchanted of Ron's small, angry face that he couldn't turn to look what the situation was behind him. Jack raised his hand carefully and glanced the nanny's more amused and gentle face. Jack laughed again and asked: "May I…?"

"Of course, he is your son." The nanny said and raised the child encouragingly to Jack.

Jack too raised his hands towards the baby, took carefully a hold of him under his armpits and lifted him carefully from the nanny's arms. The baby still cried, but it turned more confused whining when Jack raised Ron in his arms and examined the child. Tiny feet swayed in the air and suddenly Jack lifted the baby against his shoulder and held of the little bum and fragile back. The nanny smiled and seemed to be pleased that Jack could hold the little baby right. The woman nodded to Jack and put the bag on the floor as she then went back to the upstairs.

Jack took few steps and began to talk to the baby, like he had talked to Alexander when he had cried in sleepless nights. Elizabeth walked next to Jack with Alexander in her arms and looked spellbouded at the meeting of Jack and Ron. The woman tightened her hold around Alexander and leaned her cheek against the child's head as she just looked at her husband and their younger son together. Jack glanced at Elizabeth as he had a wide smile and his dark, healthy eye sparkled… maybe because of a little, rare touching feeling. "He is perfect." Jack's gaze said to wife, who knew her dearest thoroughly. The woman answered to him with a gentle smile and let out blissful sigh of happiness. Once again words were useless between them. Soon Jack turned his gaze back to Ron and continued his slowly walking with the baby in his arms.

Ron rubbed his little face against the shoulder of his father's grayish blue coat, smelled strange scents of cigarette, salt and something undefined as he listened the low voice that was somehow so soothing and familiar.

"That's right, there is no reason to cry anymore", the voice said and rough beard tickled Ron's forehead. The baby decided not to cry anymore and took a hold of the beard with his little fist and pulled with his all might.

"Ouch!" Jack grimaced, but he didn't raise his voice at all. Elizabeth chuckled happily. Jack tried to make the baby to let go of his beard. "Owowow, let go of daddy's beard." He begged as Elizabeth and Alexander laughed beside him.

Jack glanced at them as he acted upset and said with talented calm face: "Ye should try this yourselves, if ye had this kind of magnificent beard like I have!"

The laughter just grew louder and finally Ron let go of Jack's beard. The baby's quick hands moved restlessly and the boy voiced happily when he got a hold one of Jack's tangled dreadlock. Jack sighed as a sign of surrender and smiled though his head ached.

"Quite a lad ye are. We just met and now ye are turnin' violent already…" Jack mumbled to his son and he laughed with his toothless mouth to that funny man, who had interesting hair that he got a good hold of. Jack couldn't help but to laugh as he saw that little boy's happy face. He kissed the child on his forehead and mumbled against it: "Me son… No doubt about it…"

xxx

On the next afternoon, Jack was walking with his family on a hill behind the mansion. He had refused to lie in the bed anymore and said that he would get better faster when he was able to spent time with Elizabeth and children. And naturally he was still enchanted about Ron. He wanted to hold the baby in every possible situation and when Elizabeth tried again to breastfeed Ron, Jack just stared beside her a little goofy smile on his face. Elizabeth teased that for a once Jack stared something else than her breasts when her dress was open.

The sunny hill was perfect place to sit and admire the sea, where golden beams played on the waves and silver fishes made the sea look like moving mass of jewels that continued endlessly.

They had taken boys safely to the Governor's house yesterday and grandfather Swann had also wanted to see his grandchildren from his sickbed. They had spent the whole night talking about experiences as Ron had slept either in his father's or grandfather's arms. Jack and the Governor had managed to make some civilized talking, but they had done it because of Elizabeth. Mostly Jack had kept away from the Governor's bed and sat on the huge armchair at the corner of the room. Though he was now a free man, he still felt a bit uncomfortable at the house of the King's man.

Elizabeth had apologized the late time from his father, kissed his old forehead and the Sparrow family had left into their own bedrooms. At the guesthouse Elizabeth had ordered her husband and sons to bed and finally they all had fallen asleep in the same bed.

Now Elizabeth and Jack sat next to each other on the grass, Ron slept with full stomach in a basket beside them and Alexander examined the nature with his childish curiosity. Jack smoked his cigarette and Elizabeth let the sun shine to her face as she leaned against her husband's shoulder.

"We need to leave here", Jack said suddenly and stubbed out his cigarette on the grass. "I don't like that new guy at all. He surely makes troubles to us if we stay here."

"Not just a lousy thief?" Elizabeth said with a smile and opened her eyes. Nothing could have ruined her good mood. And it wasn't Jack's purpose. He was exceptionally happy when he was middle of his little family. The laughing man put his hand on Elizabeth's shoulder and whispered into the woman's hair: "Hmm… Yer own barbarian, aye?"

Elizabeth smiled playfully and turned to look into Jack's eyes. "Aye."

Jack bent down and touched with his mouth on Elizabeth's tempting lips. "Just wait when kids fall asleep in their own room, then I will show ye how brutal and cruel man I can be. I will show all of me the most horrible tricks… Ye know…"

Elizabeth laughed against Jack's mouth and whispered: "Hold your tongue, you dirtbag… Your sons are here…"

"Mmm…" Jack mumbled and caressed Elizabeth's lips with his own. "I can't wait that Ron inherits all of my deviousness. Wanna bet that his first word is…"

"I don't want to hear!" Elizabeth giggled and wrapped her arms aroud Jack to surrender to a gentle kiss with him as the sun caressed their skins tenderly and the wind swayed their hair.

But suddenly Alexander shouted with his familiar way from somewhere farther: "Stop that grossly kissing!"

"What gross?" Jack mumbled against his wife's mouth, but sighed and turned to look what was the matter. Elizabeth also turned to look at the edge of the rock, where the boy stood as dark, small figure against the sun. But something else behind the boy made them focused on something farther at the sea, towards the horizon. Something dark and very familiar.

Jack got up immediately and squinted his healthy eye as he shaded it with his hand. Elizabeth got up also and they stared at the sight together.

Alexander ran to his parents enthusiastically and shouted as he pointed at the sea: "Dad! Do you see it!?"

"Aye," Jack answered and his trademark grin lightened his face. "I see it very well…"

There it sailed towards them, keel splitting surges, black sails slamming in the wind, familiar crew working on the deck. The sun reflected from lanterns and the beautiful wooden decorations at the stern and bow. Jack could almost hear the mute helmsman's parrot yelling and men's swearing and whistling.

It approached them with fast speed, after all it was the fastest ship in the Caribbean.

The Black Pearl had arrived to pick up the Captain.


	22. Chapter 22

Author: Tenucci  
Translating: Rosette  
Rating: PG 13

Summary: Elizabeth has to worry once more…

22.

Jack, Elizabeth and Alexander stood there at the edge of the rock, Elizabeth held safely of Alexander's clothes and Jack was excited as he covered his eyes from the sun with his hand. They watched how the Black Pearl sailed closer to the shore, ready to anchor the ship. Ron still slept sweetly and didn't let that kind of silly fussing bother himself. Why should he care the return of the Black Pearl when he could sleep in the warm basket! What else could a four months old little pirate hope for..?

Ron's father Jack was enthusiastic about the arriving of his dear ship. The man could almost see the figure of a man near the helm, on the upper deck. That was Cotton, who steered the Pearl with steady, experienced hands with a parrot on his shoulder. Other figures rushed around the deck like hard-working ants in their jobs and some of the crew climbed to masts and ropes. Jack was proud of his faithful crew, who returned to pick him up this way. Some other pirate crew might have left their Captain as he was arrested. But the Pearl looked majestic, shiningly beautiful as it split the waves and arrived so missed and so welcomed to the beach, where Elizabeth had once left shores of Port Royal.

Elizabeth Swann had left her former life behind when she had run away from William Turner and arrived to Jack through a storm at the sea, without luggage, shoes or money. She had wore only a soaking wet and dirty dress and she had been unconscious and pale as a sheet when she had been lifted to the deck of the Pearl, but still Jack had wanted her.

Only her. And they still were on that journey.

Suddenly Jack turned his gaze to his wife, who smiled overjoyed to that familiar ship and made sure that Alexander wouldn't go too near of the edge. The boy was also ecstatic about the arriving of the ship, which he admired so much. He reached farther and farther, so that his shirt stretched in the tight hold of the mother. Jack trusted completely that the woman would keep the boy safely at the edge of the rock and focused to admire Elizabeth's sweetly feminine, fair appearance; hair that glittered in the color of gold and honey, little wrinkles around her hazel brown eyes, simple dress and hands, which one of them was decorated with the wedding ring that Jack had given to her at the island of Marie Galante and the other hand that had a hold of the shirt of their firstborn. All those things told about the eventful life together that had been full of every bad and good emotion of human life. And the biggest and strongest feeling was love.

Elizabeth seemed more and more beautiful in Jack's eyes with her blond hair locks and warm, laughing eyes. Though that this wife and mother was still quite young, she was absolutely grown-up woman, not a girl anymore. Years at the sea and ashore, here and there had left a mark of life experience to Elizabeth. And of course stormy marriage with the Caribbean's most troublesome, reckless pirate and two sons had also done their own part. But Jack's love towards Elizabeth had just grown along events of the past weeks. Even the knowledge of what kind of danger and experiences Elizabeth had bravely thrown herself into just to find him and their children, didn't decrease his love.

Vice versa.

Jack forgot the Pearl completely for a moment like he often might forgot everything else as he looked at Elizabeth. He raised his hand to touch his woman's still girly smooth cheek. The pirate smiled gentler than usually when Elizabeth's eyes met his and he said with hoarse voice: "Ye are so incredible, Lizzie." Jack loved how Elizabeth's nickname slipped between his lips and he loved those moments when he was able to call his wife with that name.

Elizabeth turned to look at her husband and stared at him as she had mesmerizing smile on her face. The smile competed with the sun, white teeth shined between red lips and that sight made Jack enchanted completely. The man took a step closer and wrapped his hands around Elizabeth's waist and continued as he caressed the woman's face: "I don't know how I could have been so stupid that I left ye even for a day… or an hour. I must have been in perfect insanity…"

Elizabeth laughed with gently amused smile and caressed Jack's hand that held her like in the right of real owner. Jack let his fingers caress Elizabeth's waist and he made the woman giggle quietly like a bashful girl. The eye that was visible under the red bandana sparkled uninhibitedly seductive.

"Truly in perfect insanity…", he said with a low voice.

Elizabeth raised her hand to caress her husband's bearded chin.

"Yes… Yes, you must've been." She followed perfect lips with her finger.

"Ye just wait when we'll get into our own familiar cabin…" Jack growled and stepped more closer as he tightened his hold around his wife's waist. Elizabeth bit her lip and let her pleased gaze tease Jack. Their eyes spoke that wordless language that only them two understood.

"You are getting impatient again", Elizabeth teased and raised her chin with a teasing movement.

"Not just getting…" Jack said and bent closer towards Elizabeth as his hungry lips almost touched Elizabeth's perfect mouth. "I have been impatient ever since we were at Tortuga, where ye seduced me so cruelly…"

"I was cruel?" Elizabeth laughed. "It was Gibbs, who interrupted us…"

Suddenly Alexander asked: "Interrupted what?"

Jack and Elizabeth laughed to the boy's curiosity and small redness raised to color Elizabeth's cheeks.

"Listen, son, just focus to that ship." Jack ordered as he cleared his throat.

"You are talking your own, disgusting things again…" Alexander snorted and then he fell silent as he turned his attention back to the sea. His parents glanced each other with amused smile.

"Exactly those, me son… those exactly."

"Yes, Jack…" Elizabeth continued after the interruption. "You just should've stayed home, so I would have kept you…" Elizabeth bent teasingly closer to her husband. "Satisfied…"

Jack was silent for a moment and then said: "Oh, Lizzie… I will never leave ye again…" Jack's dark eye shone self-blame and he took Elizabeth's hand into his own. "I was so perfect jackass that I am… horrified! So close to lose ye just because of me own, incomprehensible stupidity…"

"Listen, jackass…" Elizabeth grinned gently and made Jack laugh so that his golden tooth glinted in the bright light.

"The worst is over now", Elizabeth patted Jack's chin with her finger with reassuring smile. "We are here again… You, I, children and we don't have anything to worry about."

Then Jack smiled and looked so happy that a pirate could ever look. Elizabeth smiled also and put her hand into Jack's hand. They glanced each other lovingly before turned to look at the Pearl again. The sun reflected golden-red beam of light from their wedding rings, which shone between their entwined fingers.

xxx

Jack put his hat quickly on his head and grabbed Ron's basket from the grass as he said to Elizabeth: "You take kids and go to pack", Jack handed the basket to Elizabeth, who rushed to him as she held from Alexander's hand. "I will go down to meet the crew. Gibbs has surely been nervous and nearly drank himself to death because of worry." The man laughed to his thought of alcoholic First mate and gave his younger son to her wife.

Elizabeth took the basket into her another arm and tried to calm down Alexander's enthusiasm.

"Calm down, dear, you will get to the Pearl, you just have to wait a little bit."

The boy was more than excited to leave with her father to explore the ship and begged from his father and mother a permission to leave with Jack. "Let me come with you, dad! Mom, let me!" Too long time had passed from the last visit to the Pearl, he announced impatiently to his parents.

"Wait, dear, wait", Elizabeth calmed with a mother's patient voice. Then she said to Jack as she glanced towards the mansion with worried look on her face: "I hope that this will not bring any troubles to the Pearl and crew."

"They can't be seen from the fortress, but we must still hurry." Jack said with serious voice and fixed the position of his sword and pistol like he would have made sure that they were at their right places. The Captain felt safer again when he had gotten his weapons back from the prison.

"Could Milles have nerve began to attack on us, when we just want to leave from the island quietly..?" Elizabeth sounded more and more worried. "He got what he wanted… my father's power and authority."

"I don't think so, but I still don't trust him", Jack growled and then changed into fatherly voice as he ordered Alexander, who whined on the grass: "Ye will calm down now, son, and go to help yer mother with packing."

"Dad, I..!" The boy began to protest and only wanted to go with Jack.

"Not going to happen." Jack announced and heard more frantic protests and begging.

"Packing is so boring! That is work of hags!" Alexander shouted angrily. Jack couldn't prevent himself from laughing

and of course his wife gazed him indignantly.

"Hold your tongue, young man!"

"Sorry, mom", Alexander said and acted like he regretted it as he scowled Elizabeth displeasedly.

Elizabeth scowled her husband, who tried not to laugh and she turned and took few steps towards the house. She dragged Alexander from his hand as she said to her husband shortly and pithily: "We will see you at the shore. We will come soon."

Jack strode to Elizabeth, kissed quickly on her lips and said: "Don't be angry."

"Don't you provoke the child to that awful manner of speaking." Elizabeth said angrily.

"Princess…" Jack mumbled as he kissed lightly and gently Elizabeth's mouth. "When ye come to the shore, ye can't be angry to me anymore…" Jack had self-satisfied smile on his face. The corner of Elizabeth's mouth moved and the woman turned as she tried to hide her smile.

Jack laughed to his wife and patted the head of his reluctant son and then disappeared like a thief into the night to the forest as he was intending to go through it to the white sand of the shore.

xxx

Elizabeth had packed all of her own things, baby's clothes, Jack's bandages and Alexander's toys and also her money into the sailor's bag, which she had found from the bottom of the bedroom's closet. _How suitable_, the woman laughed and tied the string into knot. She set the bag on the floor near the door and sighed as she looked at the bedroom. Soon it would be time to go… conclusively.

She had sent her son to get some paper from the next room, so that she could write a letter to her father. Alexander had just brought paper with grumpy look on his face and sat next to the door to sulk because he hadn't been allowed to go with his father to the ship.

"Oh, come on, my little dear… Don't sulk." Elizabeth glanced at the boy from the corner of her eye, straightened hems of her green dress and sat down to write.

"Yes I will…" The boy answered and stared his mother. "And I'm not your little dear."

Elizabeth laughed with amused smile, turned and began to write with a decorated pen:

_Father,_

_Thousands of thanks for everything good you have done for us. You saved us in every way. Still we must leave, its best for all of us. I'm sure that you will understand._

_Don't be resentful to me, this is the road that I've chosen when I was a little girl and I have to follow it. Jack is a good man, he makes me happy and whole. He has done mistakes, but I believe that he had learned his lesson. Don't be worried about me, I will give him all of my heart, but there will always be a place for you in my heart._

_I promise to raise your grandsons into fine men, so that you can always be proud of them. They will miss you. I will miss you._

_How could I ever thank you enough?_

_Loving and respecting you,_

_Your daughter Elizabeth_

Elizabeth folded the letter into a long and narrow envelope, wrote the name _Weatherby Swann_ and set the letter on the desk to the visible place. The woman felt great nostalgia, because this time she knew that she would never see her father again. She would never return to home again. She had thought that last time, but the destiny had brought her and her father back together for the one last time. Now it was time to leave towards the grand and unknown future. Elizabeth smiled and thought that maybe it was unknown, but with Jack the unknown was more exciting than frightening. And to Elizabeth, Jack was her home in spite of where in the world they ever would be.

Elizabeth looked at the envelope for a moment as she tried not to cry and she wiped the corner of her eye and then said: "Well, Alex…" Elizabeth turned around towards her son. "Are you read..?"

Elizabeth's sentence was incompleted when she stared at the empty room behind her. The door into the corridor was ajar. The woman's gaze circled around the room a few times, but she didn't see Alexander anywhere. Just a bureau was still there, but the boy who had sat next to it wasn't there.

"Alex?" Elizabeth shouted and jumped to stand. Familiar fear, which she wouldn't have believed to feel that day, tightened its hold around her neck. Elizabeth felt the raising of her pulse and she ran to check the corridor. No sight of the dark haired boy, who was dressed in jacket and knee pants.

"Alexander!" Elizabeth shouted with shivering voice and worried looking maid appeared from the next room to look what was the matter. The woman looked at the mistress confused and before she had time to ask any questions,

Elizabeth yelled: "My son is missing!"

"Lady..?" The maid began as she frowned and wiped her hands into her apron. Apparently she had been washing some clothes.

"Go seek him immediately!" Elizabeth ordered almost hysterically. A question circled in her mind: _Why? Why now? Haven't we suffered enough already?!_

"Lady, your son probably ran outside to play." The maid tried to calm, but Elizabeth didn't listen. Franticly she looked around her like she would wonder where to start the searching.

"I have to find him!" The woman ran back to the bedroom, lifted Ron's basket into her arms, threw the bag on her shoulder and rushed back to the corridor.

_Alexander couldn't have gone very far_, Elizabeth pondered as she rushed to check the rooms at the upstairs. She didn't find Alexander from the library, laundry room or other bedrooms. The woman stopped for a moment to ponder in the corridor. The carpet, beautiful wallpapers and houseplants of the corridor began to circle wildly in her eyes. Elizabeth shook her head with tears in her eyes.

_What if I don't find Alexander… what if he has gotten…? No! You must stop now!_

But Elizabeth already saw horror images in her mind how she would shout her son's name into the night and seek from the dark forest and jungle with Jack with torches in their hands, without finding Alexander…

She had suffered, experienced too much loss and fear. The pain of losing and the worry of missing children was too fresh, agonizing memory and like an open wound in Elizabeth's mind and that made her like a paranoid nervous wreck. But did she have a reason for it? Elizabeth didn't say a word to the maid, who looked at her helplessly as she explained something that she couldn't find the boy from the downstairs either, and Elizabeth rushed along the corridor to the stairs that led to downstairs. The wall clock chimed when the door slammed at downstairs and Elizabeth had already left the mansion of Port Royal.

xxx

Many dirty hands patted Jack on his shoulders and back as the laughter echoed at the shore. The campfire had been inflamed and rumbottles had been opened. Glittering sparkles flew towards the sky and shone with the stars. The evening was full of good mood and stories of events in the past weeks, which began to turn into distant horrors. Only bandage on Jack's eye was the visible sight of his and Elizabeth's imprisonment and almost fulfilled hanging.

The Captain laughed and enjoyed of excellent rum and the company of his crew. He was with his own. With these men he could be freely what he had born into: a pirate. But though their moods were cheerful, the memory of lost home, Tortuga, was like a shadow in their minds.

The Pearl had sailed around the island and helped many to stand on their feet again. It had carried pirates, women and children, who had fallen into the sea, to Port-de-Paix where they had gotten shelters and chance to survive. That's why it had taken so long to sail to pick up Jack.

The Pearl had taken into the crew a few new members from Jack's old friends, who had lost their families, because of the cruelty and ruthlessness of soldiers, who had attacked at Tortuga. Jack didn't mind at all, he welcomed new men and said apologies for their dead wives and children.

Jack didn't say anything, but felt cold fear as he glanced at those silent men when he pondered how it would be like to lose Elizabeth or boys to the death. He shook his head, because even the thought was too painful to bear and he continued talking with Pintel, Marty and Gibbs.

Suddenly someone approached them. A woman, who had dressed in a long green dress and dark scarf, carried a basket and a bag. Jack had his back towards the comer and so he didn't pay attention to her until Gibbs coughed meaningfully to Jack and nodded towards the woman. Jack turned and saw Elizabeth approaching them. The Captain smiled happily and got up as he was careful with her right foot. Many places of his body still ached, not to mention the wound.

He raised his eyes to Elizabeth and the smile disappeared from his face when he saw the woman crying.


	23. Chapter 23

Author: Tenucci  
Translated: Rosette (I'm very sorry that this took so long, but I was very busy.)  
Rating: NC 17

Summary: Long and rough journey is over, but more longer, hopeful and happier is ahead. Curiosity 2 ends.

A/N: I almost cry in here when I am publishing my last chapter and epilogue of Curiosity sequel. What a work, but now it's done. Again, I can't say anything else but I hope from all of my heart that this pleases you and the story ends the way you like. At least one couple is happy… Read & review, dear pirates, if you dare.

Thanks: Thank you to everybody who has read this, members and anonymous. I wouldn't have done this without you. Thanks for comments, which are my pay for this work. Especially thanks to all Sparrabethers, this is for all of you so that you would know who the main couple in Pirates trilogy is! Thanks to Redgie (Rosette), you are my most important supporter, thanks that you made Curiosity in English possible. Love ye, mate 3

Thanks my laptop, thanks MS Office Word, thanks memory stick, thanks coffee that kept me awake in 3 am when I wrote this, thank you to my man who didn't always understood patiently my creativeness, but kept his mouth shut. Thanks to Fanfiction that this story was published in here and also thanks to the Black Pearl, where this story was first published.

Now I won't talk anymore, here is the last chapter. Enjoy!

23.

"What do ye mean by he is missin'?" Jack shouted with surprise and took a hold of Elizabeth's shoulders as the woman was almost hysterical. The woman sobbed, but still tried her best to stay calm and speak with understandable voice in front of Jack's crew. She had always made sure that Jack wouldn't have to be ashamed of her stupid, hysterical behavior in front of the crew. But her only result was unclear sputtering and pirates behind them listened and followed the situation with frowns.

"He ran away from our room when I wrote a letter to my father." Elizabeth cried and took a deep breath. She greeted pirates, who sat around the campfire, with a nod and noticed that Ron had woken up. The baby blinked his dark eyes sleepily and got a scent of the cool night air in his little nose. He heard voices of his father and mother nearby and babbled to get attention from them. Parents looked at the baby with a sigh, but focused into their conversation again.

"I looked from every room, but he had left the house…" Elizabeth said with a sorrow in her voice and put her bag and Ron's basket on the sand, so that she could rest her aching arms. The baby laughed in the darkening evening as he wanted to get out from the basket, where he couldn't see anything that happened around him. Elizabeth bent and lifted the boy in her arms and continued: "He got angry to me when I didn't allow him to come with you. You know what he's like…"

"Oh bloody hell that kid!" Jack growled angrily and glanced at the beach in the darkening evening. He fixed the bandage of his eye and moved thoughtfully the matchbox between his long fingers. He was getting nervous too.

_Just when everything should be alright!_

But suddenly Jack noticed something just a few feet away in the sand. On the white sand, near the waterline, was something strange that woke Jack's interest. Jack did say anything, just walked there, where waves couldn't wipe away imprints of the sand. The Captain stared it a long time and kicked the sand carefully with a tip of his brown boot. He mumbled something as others looked at him with confused looks on their faces. Jack bent closer to examine imprints of the sand, which led into the sea with steady tracks as they finally disappeared into waves. Soon the man got up and crossed his arms as he sighed like he had decided something. He glanced the silhouette of the Black Pearl that swayed faithfully and waiting on that nightly open sea. The pale yellow full moon was currently rising from the horizon behind the ship and the pirate ship's beautiful shape, dark color and many lanterns melted the Pearl into the dark blue night sky filled with stars.

Jack suddenly grinned to his own mysterious thoughts and returned back to others. Elizabeth wanted to know a reason for his hesitation and waiting, Ron stared with his black eyes at the amazement in the horizon. Jack looked at them both and smiled calmingly. He seemed relieved, but didn't say anything to his family, just turned towards his crew as he ordered: "Go and search the whole ship! I think that we have a little stowaway at the ship!"

The men glanced at each other, scratched their dirty heads and got up on their feet to obey the Captain's order. Some were already running towards the boat and the rest were kicking sand into the fire. Few were collecting bottles and left those which were empty on the sand. Even Elizabeth didn't order the men to clean them away. She looked at Jack with confused look on her face and tried to ask from him: "Jack, what on earth..?"

But her husband interrupted her and answered calmingly: "Ye don't have any reason to panic. Just trust me."

Seven strong and dirty men literally crowded into the boat and the eighth pushed it forward, so that it could get carried by waves. Eventually the boat detached from the soft sand and Pintel, who had pushed the boat, jumped in with bald shining in the moonlight. The men immediately began to row towards the Black Pearl that waited to sail away from these dangerous waters.

"Wait for me arrivin', but let that little stowaway to get a little afraid!" Jack shouted to passengers of the boat and Elizabeth looked at him strangely. Ron laughed and Jack grinned meaningfully to his smiling, toothless son.

xxx

After the men had left, Jack began help Elizabeth into the boat, who had Ron in her arms, against her chest. Elizabeth took a careful step over the edge as she kept a hold of Jack's hand and sat uneasily on the middle seat. She tried to suggest if they still stayed and sought for Alexander, but Jack just laughed and put the basket and his wife's items on the bottom of the boat.

"Did ye left any of our items at the mansion?" Jack asked and pushed the boat, so that it got some water under it. The pirate jumped in and settled in the place of the rower as he took oars in his hands.

"No." Elizabeth answered and grabbed the edge with her other hand when the wave swayed the boat. She tightened the hold around their child. Ron babbled and squeezed the laced neckline of his mother's dress.

"Look at our son, Liz, he is like made for seas!" Jack praised as he rowed and glanced with a smile at the dark haired baby, who tried to understand the wonderfulness of waves.

In spite of Jack's obvious unconcerned smile, Elizabeth was almost distraught because of fright and squeezed hyperactively struggling Ron against her chest and stared at the dark sea. The moon threw its pale light on them above the Pearl.

"Listen darlin'", Jack began with his naturally confident voice. "I'm pretty sure that we will find him soon."

"How do you know it?" Elizabeth asked quietly. "How can you be so calm?"

"My little Elizabeth, he is certainly waitin' us there at the ship." Jack said with amused voice and apparently imagined his 6 years old son surrounded by ten bloodthirsty-looking pirates as they find supposedly dangerous stowaway in the cargo hold or in the Captain's cabin.

"But enough bad things have happened to us…" Elizabeth sputtered and sobbed wearily in Ron's hair. Jack rowed steadily forward and suddenly looked at the woman with very serious look on his face. The pirate suddenly realized that events of last weeks and the year before had left marks in his wife. It had made Elizabeth to fear.

Fear of losing her dearests.

Jack took a deep sigh and once again he felt the pain of self blame in his heart. He still couldn't understand at all what had made him to leave his family. The man stopped rowing, put oars against the side of the boat and stood up. He took a few steps in the swaying boat and crouched in front of Elizabeth. He bent to kiss the head of his giggling son and looked Elizabeth into her eyes.

"Elizabeth, where Alex wanted to go so eagerly?" Jack asked without a doubt that he knew the answer.

Elizabeth looked at Jack with confusion and then said: "Do you mean..?"

"Aye, darlin'", Jack laughed as he fingered his beard. "I'm sure that he is somewhere at the ship."

"But if somebody has done something bad to him?!" Elizabeth shouted. "What if..?"

"Ye have become paranoid." Jack laughed with hoarse but still so soft voice at the same time when Ron squeezed his forefinger and tried to pull it off. Jack let the child play, waved his finger just to provoke the boy and at the same time he focused on Elizabeth.

"Well, can you blame me about it!?" The woman shouted without actually blaming her husband.

"No… not exactly", Jack mumbled. "But those things are in the past. I'm sure that this time ye really are worryin' for nothin'."

"What do you mean?"

"Because I saw little, familiar footprints there at the beach. And I happen to remember that me son is quite good and too enthusiastic swimmer in spite of his young age."

xxx

At the same time at the Pearl, a little dark-haired rascal screamed in joy when Pintel and Gibbs found him at the cargo hole and carried him from his feet to the deck as they growled with frightening voice and threatened that when the Captain would arrive, he would punish the boy for this impudent and undisciplined behavior.

Maybe they would lock him into the Captain's cabin or keelhaul him…

…under the bowsprit.

xxx

A week later…

"This place is so beautiful… so quiet and calm…" Elizabeth sighed by herself and leaned against a railing of a shack which had been built over water. It was bright and warm night, fireflies danced everywhere around her as they were excited about the shining light that came from inside of the shack. The dark bluish green light of water reflected on Elizabeth's forehead and cheeks. Stars shined through the thick rainforest that had a fresh scent. Warm orange light of the lanterns and candles shimmered behind her back. She heard Alexander's arguing with Tia about the sleeping time and Jack's drunken laugh as he played card with his crew members. Gibbs and Pintel also spent time at Tia Dalma's shack as they protected their Captain. The Black Pearl was anchored in front of the island and the rest of the crew stayed there.

Elizabeth frowned as she heard from Jack's mouth: "Bloody hell! Full house again!" and thought about the presence of the children, but she didn't bother go to nag. She was too happy to nag about anything right now.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and smiled as she thought about events of the previous week.

They had sailed for over a week from Port Royal and arrived in that morning to the Pantano-river. That tropical island covered with jungle and rivers was located away from where ships used to sail and dark skinned inhabitants, including Tia Dalma, that helpful, but mysterious voodoo-woman, had lived for years of peaceful life near the Pantano-river.

Tia had helped Jack before, last time was when the couple had just began their journey, and now she had let the Captain's family stay with her until they would decide their next destination. Because the Sparrows were a family that included a little baby, they couldn't live at the ship for long journeys. Elizabeth had tried it once already and they all agreed that it wouldn't work. Especially nervewreck Gibbs, who couldn't stand any more baby cry in the middle of the night.

Elizabeth said that the pirate ship was too dangerous. Jack said… yes. He had to agree with Elizabeth if he wanted not to make her angry in this sensitive subject. Jack had negotiated some sort of compromise with Elizabeth. They would seek a home from the land until Ron would be old enough go to seas. Then Jack could begin to teach his sons and they could settle in somewhere else… anywhere in the world, like Jack said. Elizabeth had said that it would be the future's sorrow, now they finally could live like a real married couple. Jack had nothing to say against it; he just wanted to be near his dear wife and family, now when he felt like he deserved them again.

"A penny… no, wait a minute… A big shining silvershillin' from yer thoughts, luv?" A low voice said suddenly behind Elizabeth's back. The woman opened her eyes and she didn't turn, just smiled when she heard her husband's tone. She had heard it quite many times before and knew exactly what it meant.

Elizabeth also knew that they hadn't had a chance to make love during the sailing, though Jack had naturally tried several times to seduce Elizabeth in somewhere peaceful and dark corners of the Pearl. Elizabeth wouldn't had anything against it, she had managed to get excited as Jack's passion awakened, but never gotten full satisfaction because peaceful moment together and Alexander Sparrow at his father's ship didn't just fit together.

So Jack began to be quite impatient and Elizabeth also.

Elizabeth turned slowly around to meet Jack, who leaned on the doorway. The Captain's mischievous, tempting look made Elizabeth felt wonderful, little shivers down her spine and Jack also looked almost unreal handsome and seducing in that soft light. His white shirt swayed in the wind against his tanned skin. Bandana was gone now and Jack's dark tangled hair stayed still with a help of the bandage that covered the eye and circled around the head. Jack still couldn't take the bandage away, but it didn't seem to bother or slow the Captain. Everybody waited with tension if Jack could see with his other eye again. Every time Elizabeth looked at her dearest's injury, her heart ached, but she didn't think about it right now.

She knew that Jack wanted her to think something else right now…

"Or should I say a diamond..?" Jack continued and came closer to Elizabeth with a smile on his lips. "Or do ye like more rubies… maybe a sapphire..?"

Elizabeth descended to lean with her elbows on the railing. She smiled like she had no-idea what that charming voice hinted to her. But she thanked herself in her mind that she was now beautiful and clean after the tiring events. She had bathed earlier in the evening, washed her hair with scenting soap and she was wearing a long white nightgown that hid her bare ankles. She had borrowed decorated, silky morning gown from Tia. Elizabeth's golden, shiny and clean hair descended on her back and chest.

"Do ye Miss… erm, Madam… often visit here?" Jack still joked and walked closer to Elizabeth with glimmering healthy eye.

Elizabeth noticed that voices inside of the shack had turn quieter. All she heard was chatting of two pirates and a wise woman. The light was dimmer. That told Elizabeth what she needed to know: the children were sleeping…

She was free to focus on Jack.

"Actually no", Elizabeth laughed with seducing tone as she distantly pondered that she still knew how to be seducing. It seemed to come naturally when she was with this man. Elizabeth got up with slow, cat-like movement when Jack walked in front of her. "But maybe I should, because this is so beautiful place." She added.

"But not so beautiful as ye are." Jack said as he grinned in his drunkenness. Jack took a gentle hold of the waist of his wife and pulled her closer.

"You funny, drunken man", Elizabeth giggled and wrapped her arms around her husband's shoulders. "You are impossible flatterer…"

"With ye I can afford to that." Jack whispered and bent down to kiss the wife's forehead. Elizabeth closed her eyes and raised her head as she wanted more kisses to her lips also. But the man didn't kiss the tempting mouth of Elizabeth; he hugged her gently and suddenly began to hum quietly an old waltz in her ear. Jack's soft voice still sent more heated shivers down Elizabeth's spine.

"You remember that song…" Elizabeth whispered with weak voice and soon she began to hum with Jack.

"Singapore, November in the year 1704…" Jack said between the humming.

"Our engagement…" Elizabeth said and continued the humming of the melody.

Suddenly their feet began to move lightly on the creaking floor of the porch as they began dance slowly. Jack pressed his cheek against Elizabeth's forehead, tightened his hands around woman's back and waist and they danced peacefully in the rhythm of his humming. Elizabeth closed her wetted eyes and let her body move along with her husband's movement.

"I love you, Jack…" Elizabeth whispered against Jack's neck and squeezed him gently from his shoulder. She felt that Jack's heartbeat fastened a little.

"I love ye too, Elizabeth…" Jack answered with hoarse voice and rose to look at the woman's face. He stopped the movement and looked a moment at Elizabeth's big, gentle eyes.

"I have somethin' for ye…" Jack whispered to his wife and mysteriously mischievous look lightened his tanned face.

Elizabeth frowned, but smiled. She teased Jack with her glare and asked: "What is it?"

"Well…" Jack began, unable to hide his lovely devilish smile, and took a hold of Elizabeth's hand. Jack took a step towards the opening in the railing of the porch. "We must go to a certain place, so that I can give ye me… present."

Elizabeth blushed sweetly because of that little pause in his speech. "Where?" She asked as curious as a little girl and made Jack laugh.

"If I told ye, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, darlin'…"

xxx

The jungle looked quite impressive at night. All sounds and scents charmed the travelers and they wondered how amazing and beautiful nature was. Elizabeth didn't remember seeing so tall trees anywhere. She was sure that not even her and Jack's arms wouldn't be enough around the huge old trees, which heavy, dark green branches hanged above the water as they seemed like enormous curtains. Big and thick roots, covered with dark green moss, rose from the water and descended back again as they created gates and archways. Their little boat was tiny enough to sail under them. The water was clear with its many inhabitants, but now reflected only the beautiful shades of the nightly nature in the colors of black, turquoise and dark blue.

Jack rowed the boat forward leisurely as the small lantern reflected its light on his face that sometimes grinned to Elizabeth's waiting and wondering glare. The woman smiled back to him as her heart beat with excitement. Elizabeth looked around her in the dark jungle, but felt quite safe though they were middle of a strange, mysterious heartland.

She had might go anywhere in the world with Jack and feel herself safe.

But one question disturbed her mind: What had Jack arranged to surprise her? She asked the same thing aloud from Jack, but the man didn't answered to her, just grinned cunningly and Elizabeth already felt how little butterflies tickled in her stomach up and down, when she saw that determined, seducing twinkle in the man's eyes. The same gaze, which Jack had had in the beginning of their story when the man had decided to get Elizabeth for his own.

_And what happened?_ Elizabeth thought. She had become the wife and mother of children of that stubborn pirate Captain. But still, Elizabeth was more than satisfied that Jack was a man who got what he wanted.

xxx

The journey still took a moment, until the boat hit lightly a root of a tree, which grew in the shore. Jack got up quickly from the boat, tied its old rope around the root and then gave his hand to Elizabeth. Jack helped the woman to climb on the root and then to grassy ground, where started a little, twisting path that disappeared between palm trees and bushes.

"Where exactly are we?" Elizabeth asked as Jack still smiled mysteriously and picked up the lantern from the boat.

He grabbed of the delicate hand of his wife and said with a low voice: "Come…" As he pulled Elizabeth towards the path. Elizabeth answered with trustful smile, eyes shining and so Jack began to lead her in the middle of trees as he lightened their journey with the lantern that he carried.

xxx

They heard the sound of water from ahead; splashing and washing. Soft light shined behind trees and Elizabeth tried to peek behind trees, but she wasn't able to see anything yet. She walked behind Jack, held tightly of his hand and she was dying of excitement and curiosity. Then the woman felt with her face and arms that the air suddenly changed warmer. Steam began to fly in the air and the ground turned warmer, sleek rock under their feet. The moisture quickly condensed into little drops on their skin. Just like they would have arrived into a steaming cave without a roof. This cave's roof was created of thick leaves, which only let the shine of the most brightest stars through.

"Jack, what is this place?" Elizabeth asked from her husband with a voice filled with surprise.

They took a few steps, the green path was left behind and then Jack stopped and said: "Look for yerself, what ye like it…"

Elizabeth peeked carefully behind his back to see where they had arrived. The woman let out a surprised sigh and her big, beautiful eyes widened because of amazement. She looked speechlessly around her and walked from behind Jack's back to in front of him to see better. You could almost hear Jack's satisfied smile in the moist air and the man waited for the opinion of his wife as he put the little lantern on the rocky floor, where they stood.

"What have you arranged this time..?" Elizabeth sputtered and took her hand on her chest. Dozens of little drops had appeared on her skin because of the moisture in the air. Jack just laughed his seducing, all-knowing laugh behind her.

They stood inside of like a little ellipse-shaped room, which walls were formed from sleek, shiny gray rock. Branches of trees arched above their heads and grew upward to reach the sky and created great, green arch over the couple. Deep lacuna had formed into the rock in the middle of the room. It was filled with steaming hot, clear water and Elizabeth immediately understood that it was one of those hot springs that she had read from her father's books when she was a little girl. But she had thought that those existed only in northern lands… She remembered thinking how it would feel like to swim in that kind of spring.

Something told Elizabeth that she might figure it out this night…

It wasn't enough that the nature had done that kind of magically beautiful, little place in the middle of the jungle. Jack had clearly decided to make his own finishing to the place. Dozens of different kind of candles burned at the edge of the spring, that had made that dim light which they had seen from the distant. They created soft, gentle light in the place and flames fluttered peacefully in the night's warm airflow, which sometimes blew through the little room.

And that wasn't all, Jack really had made an effort to surprise Elizabeth. He had brought large, soft red blanket and set few big pillows over the blanket. Dark green wine bottle waited open with two glasses and Elizabeth didn't need to guess where the wine had been made. She could almost taste the delicious flavor of the French wine. The woman turned around to look Jack, who waited behind her.

"You mischievous…" Elizabeth sputtered with heart fully touched. She walked back to Jack and wrapped her arms around his neck. Elizabeth's hand touched Jack's moist neck-hair. "You lied to me…"

"Well, I visited at the ship today like I said to ye." Jack said with low voice and wrapped her arms slowly around Elizabeth's waist.

"I thought that you have been there the whole day…" Elizabeth laughed with pretended scold and reached towards Jack's face. "But it seems that sometimes it is useful that you are that kind of trickster…"

Jack laughed and then said with his dark eye shining devilishly: "Do ye have any idea how hard it was to bring all this stuff here?" Elizabeth giggled and Jack added: "Not to mention how much work it needed to find enough candles… Crew turned the whole ship upside-down as they searched them!"

Elizabeth's giggling just turned louder.

"Are ye satisfied?" Jack whispered as he looked Elizabeth with his dark eye and bent closer to the woman's tempting lips. Elizabeth's tongue moistened her open mouth and Jack felt temptation and desire because of that little movement.

"I am satisfied… more than ever, Jack." Elizabeth whispered and she felt Jack's hand traveling on her nape of the neck as he pulled her closer for a kiss. Just moment before Jack managed to press his mouth on Elizabeth's lips, Elizabeth whispered: "But just one thing…"

"What is that..?" Jack whispered as his breathing had already turned heavy. The man couldn't turn his gaze away from Elizabeth's lips anymore, he didn't fully understand the meaning of the woman's words, but barely contained himself as he lurked the kiss few millimeters away, so that Elizabeth could say what she wanted.

"The children…?" Elizabeth whispered as she felt dizzy because of Jack's closeness and hot breath on her face.

"Everythin' is done already, princess… Tia will take care of them tonight, so don't ye worry…" Jack whispered passionately and impatiently. "Forget everythin' else now… I am here…"

"Oh, Jack…" Elizabeth moaned. She entwined her fingers into her dear Captain's dark tangled hair. "Kiss me… and kiss me hard…"

Jack grinned and talked with hoarse voice against Elizabeth's mouth: "If ye promise to be mine the whole night…"

"I am yours… tonight. And on all of those yet to come…"

Elizabeth felt like she was in a dream as she leaned there against Jack. This wonderful, little place was magical in all of its secrecy and beauty. And Elizabeth felt more magical when Jack pressed his lips, without hesitating anymore, on her lips.

Only Jack and she alone at the edge of that steaming spring. Elizabeth surrendered completely into the power of her yearning and emotions, she tightened her hold around Jack's shoulders and fingered his hair at the same time, when Jack's tongue examined curiously her mouth and massaged gently her tongue. Elizabeth answered to the kiss boldly as her heartbeat fastened and she told with her body language that she would be his, whatever Jack would want to do to her.

"Let's leave that wine for a bit later…" Jack sighed and took Elizabeth's hands into his own. He guided them on his chest with his own hands, encouraging Elizabeth to hurry undress his clothes. Elizabeth grabbed of Jack's white shirt and pulled it off from Jack's dark trousers when the pirate raised his hands above his head to help Elizabeth to get the cloth off. The shirt quickly flew somewhere away of their reach and they didn't began to miss it. Elizabeth put her hand on Jack's bronze-brown, wet and tattooed chest and let her hand and gaze caress its smooth skin. Jack let out deep sigh, closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again as he looked how Elizabeth bent downwards and licked a drop away that had formed between Jack's pecs. Jack stared at her with open lips and eye, that was black because of lust when Elizabeth crouched lower and, without breaking the eye contact, licked long line all the way to the Jack's belly button. At the same time, Elizabeth's fingers played with the black hair that started from the belly, which was circled by twisting tattoo on the left side of the Jack's flat stomach.

"Elizabeth, oh god…" Jack moaned when the woman continued her skillful mouth's touching lower. The man's hands took a hold of Elizabeth's neck and tried to push her lightly, rushing her to continue lower. "Ye are making me weak…"

"Be patient, dearest…" Elizabeth smiled against Jack's skin and put her hands on Jack's bum as she squeezed it teasingly through the fabric. Jack growled like he had been hurt as his hand pulled Elizabeth's neck-hair, but Elizabeth knew that he had done it only because of the enormous, hidden lust that he was now overwhelmed because of her stimulating actions.

Elizabeth decided to tease Jack a little more, they had the whole night. This game had now begun, finally after a long waiting, and now Elizabeth wanted truly to play. The woman raised her gaze up to her dear husband and looked him with the most seducing smile. Jack seemed almost suffering because of waiting and Elizabeth was more than pleased to it. Now was Jack's time to wait a moment, like she had waited for so long.

The young woman did say anything, just put her hand between Jack's legs on the bulge and massaged it with slow, circling movements. Jack growled from the deep of his throat, his healthy eye closed for a moment and he moved extremely impatiently. Elizabeth knew that she couldn't play forever, because Jack wouldn't be able to control himself now, but the little teasing was still allowed.

The woman smiled and slowly opened buttons of Jack's dark gray pants. One at a time. First button.

"Elizabeth, oh God, do it faster…" Jack moaned, but the woman just laughed devilishly for an answer.

Second button. Elizabeth's finger tickled gently Jack's lower stomach that was revealed under Jack's trousers. Jack's stomach rose quicklier, his hand began to sweat against Elizabeth's neck.

Third button.

"Elizabeth, please… Take me pants off. Please do it now, ye cruel woman." Jack sputtered and kept his eyes closed as he enjoyed the torturing pleasure and waited impatiently.

Fourth and the last button. Elizabeth used purposely a lot of time to open the button and Jack rushed and groaned the whole time. Elizabeth was going to put her hand inside of Jack's pants to take out the hot cock, but suddenly the woman got an idea to tease her pirate a little more.

"Darling…" Elizabeth whispered and let her hand tickle Jack's manhood on the opened trousers.

"Y-yes..?" Jack said uneasily and opened his eyes. _What that awfully cruel and mean beauty has in her mind?!_

"You'll have to wait a moment…" Elizabeth whispered, kissed Jack's muscular stomach and got up slowly.

"This isn't fair at all!" Jack shouted as he realized that Elizabeth had no intention to do what he wanted her to do.

"Don't worry, my dearest", Elizabeth said gently as she saw the disappointed look on Jack's handsome face. "You'll only have to wait a moment… and I will do everything that you want. I will be your slave for the rest of the night, but first is my turn…"

Elizabeth withdrew from Jack and walked to the blanket and candles. The man stared after her with stunned look on his face as he breathed quickly. Elizabeth stepped on the blanket and turned to look at Jack with tempting twinkle in her eyes.

"Elizabeth, what are ye going to do?" Jack asked and took a step towards his wife.

"Stay there, dear…" Elizabeth said with a low voice and shook her finger. "Only a moment…"

"But…"

"Look at me… Just look."

Elizabeth let the morning gown fell on the blanket. Now she had only a white, sleeveless nightdress and nothing under it. Her skin glowed golden brown under the white fabric and gave torturing clues all of those charms which that fabric hid under it. Elizabeth raised her hands on her shoulders and lowered the laced shoulder straps, glanced Jack with sinful glare and undressed the rest of the dress. Her beautiful breasts were revealed under the white fabric, then stomach and finally dark hairy triangle between her thighs. Jack almost devoured Elizabeth's round, feminine curves with his gaze. The dress fell into Elizabeth's ankles and now the woman stood there completely naked and beautiful as a prototype of feminine softness and sexiness. Elizabeth laughed to her husband from the deep of her throat and let her hand to caress her round breast. Jack took a step closer without caring that Elizabeth had told not to.

Elizabeth looked at Jack the whole time when she stepped away from the pile of clothes and walked with barefoot across the stone floor towards the steaming hot, light turquoise spring. Elizabeth bent crouched at the edge of the spring and descended to sit as she put her feet into the water.

"It's so warm!" She giggled and glanced at Jack as she threw her hair behind to her back. "Will you come to try, Jack..?"

"Ye can be bloody sure about it!" The man said when he had recovered from the worst dizziness, but his lust had just increased as he had looked the woman's curves. The man walked with few steps to Elizabeth and said with a little panic in his voice: "Do ye remember what ye promised a moment ago?"

"Of course I remember", Elizabeth laughed with amused tone and moved her feet in the water. "Have you got something in your mind… my lord?"

"Oh, little Lizzie…" Jack was pleased and he walked in front of Elizabeth as the woman giggled. "Completely under my power…"

At the same time, Elizabeth got up on her knees in front of Jack and said: "My lord, how may I serve you?" Elizabeth tried to look as serious as possible, but didn't succeed completely.

"First ye could start from where ye left a moment ago..." Jack chuckled and took light hold of Elizabeth's hair. He didn't hurt his woman at all, but he wanted to be master of the scene. It was part of the game. "But I have few tricks for ye…"

"Of course, my dearest." Elizabeth said willingly and grabbed of Jack's pants as she began to undress them. She looked Jack into his eyes and the dark clothing dropped into his ankles.

Elizabeth breathed vehemently when Jack's purple-red headed manhood was revealed. Jack grinned to the woman's expression and waited what Elizabeth would do. The woman let out a deep sigh, adored Jack's cock for a moment, looked up to her husband and took so gentle, but firm hold of the velvety soft manhood. How something could be so soft and hard at the same time! Elizabeth felt how the boiling lust streamed down by her veins towards her the most secret place and made her wet, ready… She barely could wait for the next events of the night.

Elizabeth began to move her hand back and forth and that made the man to groan and moan. Elizabeth smiled to the Captain's helpless passion and bent forward to lick the member.

Jack let out a deep moan, grabbed of Elizabeth's free hand and sighed: "By the Goddess of the sea, Liz, I have waited for this so long…"

"That I kiss you here..?" Elizabeth asked with laugh and licked again.

"Aye, that's right…" Jack sighed. "And the moment that I can play with ye… only with ye…"

Elizabeth massaged Jack gently up and down and bent to lick, suck and tickle him with her tongue. She took a hold of Jack's hips and let the dick sank into her hot and wet mouth, so deep that it touched the end of her throat. Jack answered to her movement with his hips and let out moans which told of his great satisfaction in the hold of Elizabeth's mouth and hands. The woman also moaned vehemently, but her voice was just unclear mumble as Jack was deep inside of her mouth.

"Little Lizzie… Me feet won't carry me any longer..!" Jack shouted when Elizabeth quickened the movement of her head and hands. "Soon I can't… control meself anymore…"

Elizabeth let go of Jack's cock as she gasped for air, but still moved her hand around it. "Would you like to do something else?" Elizabeth asked with a hinting smile.

Jack took a hold of Elizabeth's wrist as he showed to stop the movement of the hand and said: "Go to the pool."

xxx

Elizabeth laughed with delighted smile as she leaned against the wall of the spring and enjoyed how water entwined around her body. It caressed her skin, thighs, nipples and stomach and made her more lusty and impatient. She had mischievous look on her face and she caressed herself when Jack, who had followed her into the pool, floated forward to her. Soon Jack was in front of her and pulled her into his arms. The pirate pressed his lips roughly on Elizabeth's mouth and wrapped the woman's long, wet hair around his fist as he pulled her hair gently. Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Jack and caressed his strong, muscular body under the water as they kissed. Once again she took a hold of Jack's manhood and teased it with touches that the warm water just intensified. Their toes met the craggy bottom of the spring and Jack moved them towards the edge, so that Elizabeth's back soon hit lightly against the sleek rock.

The kiss didn't break even for a moment when Jack separated Elizabeth's trembling thighs under water and moved his hand on the inner-thigh towards her spot of pleasure. The woman raised her hips towards Jack beggingly and soon the man's fingers found the soft sex that was covered with tender hair and it waited, yearned for Jack's touch.

And soon wild, uncontrolled wailing escaped from Elizabeth's lips when Jack's two fingers slid inside of her. That made Jack grin against Elizabeth's mouth and he lifted the woman against himself as he held her against the wall. Elizabeth hanged on Jack's neck, face against her husband's shoulder and she was completely feeble. She moaned aloud every time when Jack's fingers met the end of her womanhood and the man's thumb rubbed her clitoris particularly torturing way.

"Oh, Jack… Don't stop…" Elizabeth moaned. "You can't stop!"

"I won't stop." Jack promised as he had wider grin and he continued the movement until Elizabeth tightened in his arms and shouted his name in the nightly jungle as she had dazzlingly strong orgasm as a result of Jack's skillful fingers. Elizabeth trembled few times and then panted against Jack.

But Jack couldn't wait any longer nor allow resting time to Elizabeth. The Captain had waited for this to happen over a year now, seen countless dreams about this… It has to happen today and right now, nothing could prevent it anymore. Neither one didn't want to prevent it to happen.

Jack took a hold of Elizabeth and pressed her tightly against the wall, lifted her hands above her head as he captured her delicate wrists in his fists. Dizzy Elizabeth looked at him under her half-open eyelids and waited with open lips as she still panted.

"Jack, make love to me…" Elizabeth whispered and called Jack with the movement of her hips under the water.

Jack didn't answer; he pressed himself onto Elizabeth's body and closed her mouth into gentle, wet kiss as he took the woman for his own with the help of his body. Elizabeth moaned because of unbearable pleasure as she felt Jack inside of her, his manhood melting against her womanhood. Elizabeth had missed this so much! She wanted closer, she wanted to be as one with Jack. She felt that they belonged to be as one and single character and the woman wrapped her legs around Jack as she tried to keep him as near as possible. Jack freed her wrists, so that Elizabeth could wrap her hands around his neck and so she did as she threw her head back, surrendering fully to Jack. He took support of the wall, supported Elizabeth with another hand and persuaded her to the lascivious, sinfully hot but so gentle and loving moment, which was finally possible for them to share with each other.

"Jack… Oh… You feel so… so good…" Elizabeth moaned as she caressed Jack's ear with open lips and moved her hips with Jack's movement.

"Liz…" Jack moaned as sweat drops streamed down on his back and stomach to the water. His muscles did the work, when he filled Elizabeth with himself over and over again.

"Jack… Ooh! I missed you so much..!" Elizabeth still moaned.

"Oh God… I missed y..! Jack couldn't finish his line, he just moved against Elizabeth with closed eyes and open mouth. He couldn't think, talk or decode… nothing else but make passionate love with his woman.

And how they had yearned to make love with each other! Both forgot completely the world, even that beautiful place didn't take their interest, not the Pearl, not even the children.

Nothing. Nothing else but they against each other.

The misty jungle hid them, candles lightened their passionate fast rhythmic dance, their moans filled with pleasure disappeared in the sound of thousands dropping water drops. Only the nightly jungle witnessed their secret moment at the edge of the spring.

xxx

It had been very early moment of the morning, when Jack had rowed the boat slowly towards Tia Dalma's shack. Elizabeth had sat on the middle-bench again with wearing moist clothes and wet hair against her back. She had looked wearily, but extremely happily at her husband. He had answered to her gaze with tired smile also. And at least as happy as she.

They had made love in the jungle, at the hidden spring in that night. Both of them had already forgotten how many times it had actually happened. Sometimes they had rolled on the soft blanket as they had made pleasure for each other, sometimes they had laid face to face. They had stopped, rested and talked in the candlelight as they had drunk sweet wine for their thirst. Sometimes they had bathed again in the warm water of the spring.

But eventually, just before the sunrise, they had fallen asleep on the blanket as they had embraced each other and then awoken to the little shivers as rays of sunlight intruded through their eyelids. The couple had decided to dress in spite of the tiredness and had walked back to the boat.

Now Jack helped Elizabeth to climb small ladders up to the veranda of Tia Dalma's shack. Fireflies had run away from the rising day and the morning sun was so strong that it reached even that thick rainforest and let the light to spread everywhere.

The couple sneaked as quietly as possible to inside of Tia's home and they noticed that everyone was still in deep sleep. Gibbs and Pintel snored on the floor where their bed were set, Tia's light snoring came from the woman's bedroom and Alexander talked there in his sleep. Jack and Elizabeth sneaked into their own room. Jack closed the door behind him and Elizabeth sneaked in the corner to the cradle, where Ron slept with closed fists and he breathed heavily. Elizabeth whispered gently words "_my treasure_" and fixed carefully the blanket on the little body of Ron. The boy pouted his lips, but he didn't wake up.

Elizabeth turned and walked to the small bed, where she and Jack barely had room to sleep. Jack had already sat on the edge of the bed and undressed his pants. The man almost seemed to fall asleep soon and Elizabeth rushed to throw her clothes on a little chair. Soon they climbed naked on the bed and embraced each other under cool sheets. Elizabeth pressed her head against Jack's chest and closed her eyes.

"Elizabeth…" Jack mumbled in half-sleep as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

"Mmm..?" Elizabeth mumbled back as Jack caressed gently, but lazily her back.

The pirate whispered into Elizabeth's scenting and moist hair: "Elizabeth, ye are me whole world…" Jack's voice was low and exhausted, but still Elizabeth could believe his words without a doubt. The woman listened those world's most beautiful words and enjoyed the vibration in Jack's chest, which those words caused.

"Not until now I fully understand. I only need ye. No place, treasure or precious discovery… could be equal to ye… ever."

Elizabeth smiled with closed eyes as a tear of happiness escaped between her eyelid and fell on the pillow.

Now she really could believe.

"I will always be yours, in joy and in sorrow, right..?" Elizabeth whispered and pressed a kiss on Jack's warm chest. "As long as I live… and after that. I'm only yours, no matter how big uphill would come…"

"I won't make any uphills anymore…"

"Never say never…" Elizabeth teased and her voice was playful though it still was very tired.

Jack sighed with satisfied smile. "Oh my Princess… Sleep well and see dreams about me…" He turned his head as he kept his hand around sleepily laughing Elizabeth and he sighed again as all of his muscles relaxed. The Pirate Captain would soon be in deep sleep.

Elizabeth listened for a moment the steady heartbeats of her husband with closed eyes. She was too tired to open them anymore. Soon she would begin to sink into lovely unconsciousness that would refresh her from the exhaustion that their passionate night had caused. Though it was so sweet exhaustion. The best thing was the fact that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the next day after that would be spending together… the two of them and the children.

And endless time from now on.

"Sleep well, Jack…"

Elizabeth moved her hand into better position. Before she fell asleep she heard noise from the jungle and she heard how the boat hit lightly against the ladders. Outside the sun rose higher and its light shone into Tia Dalma's guestroom through old red curtains. Ron made a noise in his sleep.

Elizabeth thought about the sea that waved against shores of this island. She thought that finally she had won the worst rival, the Goddess of the Sea. She was the most important, the one and only to Jack.

Eventually she had won.

Elizabeth smiled once more as she turned her head, touched Jack's neck with her lips and fell asleep as the others began to wake into the bright morning.

xxx

Soon as Jack and Elizabeth had already fallen asleep, the wooden door opened with a creak and a woman with dark skin and tangled hair sneaked into their room as her hems rustled against the old floor. That mysterious woman looked gently at the couple who rested in the bed and she had a knowing smile on her black lips. The woman walked with barefoot to Ron's old cradle and bent to lift the boy in her arms, so that his parents could sleep in peace.

Just like Jack had agreed with Tia.

Tia Dalma walked quietly with the sleeping boy in her arms to Jack and Elizabeth's bed and bent over them. First she looked at sleeping, handsome Jack and then beautiful Elizabeth, who slept against his chest. Mysterious smile appeared on the black lips and the woman looked at Ron and then his parents again.

"Fortunately, the next one will be your last one…" Tia whispered to the morning with gentle laugh in her voice. The silence was only broken by the breathing of the sleeping couple and Jack's snoring as well as voices that came from the outside. Tia Dalma turned around to take Ron, who was already begun to awake, to the breakfast and she sneaked to the door. The old wooden floor creaked again under her delicate feet when she stepped outside from the guestroom as she closed the door behind her. Those sounds didn't disturb the sleeping couple; they had each other in there, the whole world in that little room. Nobody was allowed to neither take anything away from there nor add anything.

Jack and Elizabeth were able to fall asleep with more peaceful minds than a while and that they did do. No more fights, jealously, danger and fear of break up or cheating. All that was like stain that has been wiped away from their love, which bloomed beautifully than ever in that morning. It had grown, gotten stronger and they both would take care of it from now on.

They both had just needed a little lesson, especially Jack. But he had learned his homework; Jack would never leave his family. Elizabeth would always trust in her husband from now on. They both had learned to love better and experienced moments that many people only dreamed of and some spent their whole lives to search those moments.

They didn't have to seek anymore. They were there, a pirate and his wife, and there was nothing dirty in their love.

Actually…

Many people searched their whole life without succeeding to get something so perfect, what those two had. Something so complete, so whole that wouldn't be achieved without both with all differences… Two pieces that matched up together.

Something like to be free, but still belong to someone. To be itself, but to do everything for the other. To be a night and a day, storm and calm, to be in a sweet dream yet to be awake at the same time.

To be free.

To be loved.

To be the thing that someone wants most in this world.

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love… and be loved in return."


	24. Chapter 24

Epilogue

Almost 10 months later…

"Ron, listen boy, ye can't take it."

Jack raised his gaze from an old kitchen table and scolded wearily his year old son, who had once again staggered with his little feet to the corner, where a flowerpot was and now pushed his hand into the soil to then, of course, to put it into his mouth.

"Flo-wer, Flo-wer…" Ron repeated and ripped a leaf of the houseplant after he had first fallen onto his little bum on the floor when dad had forbidden the fun.

"Aye, it's mom's some willowherb…" Jack mumbled wearily and rubbed his forehead with a frown. He had been awake too long already. "Ye can't eat dirt."

"Flo-wer…" Ron raised disappointedly his hand towards the potted plant and glanced his father, who sat at the table as a storm lantern quietly lightened his tired face. Dad's another, blind and scarred eye had been covered with a black eye patch and a cigarette burned leisurely between the man's fingers.

Dad had been smoking a lot at that night. He only had few cigarettes left, though the sun would rise soon.

_Dad is strange this morning_, Ron's little head pondered as he yearned next his red ball on the floor. The boy got up on his feet and toddled with swaggering steps towards his toy.

Dad didn't play with him like he used to do, just glanced constantly towards the bedroom. Maybe the reason was mom's strange screams, which emanated behind the closed door or that old woman, who had ran the whole night between the kitchen and the bedroom with some item in her hands like towel or basin filled with hot water. Ron didn't understand what happened at his home. The big brother had been sent to the neighbor at the other side of the island for the night.

Elizabeth's painful shouts of pure pain and screams, which Jack had listened since yesterday evening, had fallen silent a moment ago. The man stubbed out the cigarette hastily on the ashtray on the table, though he knew that Elizabeth hated when he smoked inside.

Oh God, how he needed rum! But Elizabeth had forbidden drinking when he looked after Ron. But this situation made him nerve-wrecked and the only cure was always rum…

Suddenly the bedroom door opened once more and Jack turned quick as a lightning to look what would happen now. There stood sweaty and old woman, whose hair was ash grey and face wrinkled. Jack had fetched her last night from the other side of the island when Elizabeth's contractions had started. They hadn't dared to do this alone this time, because according to a doctor and a midwife there was a risk in this childbirth and someone had to take care of Ron.

"Say somethin', for godness sake!?" Jack shouted unnecessarily rudely and jumped on his feet from the chair. He was distraught because of waiting and worry. Ron startled that and dropped his ball on the floor behind Jack's back. The child's lower lip began to tremble.

The old woman came to the kitchen from the doorway and Jack saw that her white apron was stained with blood. The woman's hands were covered with dried bloodstains. Jack felt that his stomach turned upside down and he stared at the woman. He asked again with a weak voice:

"How is Elizabeth?"

The woman came to stand in front of Jack and grabbed the man's hands with bloodstained fingers. The man flinched instinctively backwards, shivers travelled through Jack's body and the silence around them could have been cut with a knife. Why didn't he hear anything from the bedroom..?

Not even the baby cry…

Suddenly the woman smiled with her mouth that was filled with black teeth in bloody gums. Jack felt shivers again and the pirate couldn't stop staring at that ugly face and eyes, which were blurred with cataract.

But the woman said: "God bless you, sir." Jack's eyes widened. The woman squeezed her nails into his palms. "You have a little daughter. Very small and quiet, but healthy. Beautiful, healthy daughter."

xxx

Jack walked with sleepy Ron in his arms into the bedroom, where was humid, bad air. The window had been opened, so that the air would change in the room, but still the smell of the blood floated everywhere. A little lamp lightened the room at a bedside table and next to that was a vat filled with bloody water. But Jack didn't remember it anymore when he saw Elizabeth, who sat in the messy bed. Her sweaty face was wet of tears, but she was smiling. Her wet hair was all around her forehead and nape of the neck, but oh, how beautiful Elizabeth was! Sweet smile and red cheeks made the woman, who wore the old, shabby nightdress, look like an amazement to Jack.

Elizabeth had become a mother again.

In the woman's arms was a little bundle and Jack saw brownish-black hair. The bundle didn't move at all, but Elizabeth's smile told everything necessary. The child was alive and healthy. Jack put Ron at the end of the bed and the boy immediately began to rub his face into the blanket. Jack glanced at the child and hoped that he would finally fall asleep. Jack sat carefully at the edge of the bed. Elizabeth kept her gaze in the baby and whispered to her:

"Look, little one, your father came to see you…" Then Elizabeth raised her face into her husband and said with glistening brown eyes: "It is a girl after all, Jack…"

Jack was quiet for a moment. He was surprised, though they had known all the time. He was unspeakably happy. Happy that his wife and child were alive after the rough and painful night. And they had a new member of the family. Little daughter.

First and last daughter.

"Just like Tia said…" Jack mumbled with confused look on his face and bent to look at the newcomer. Elizabeth raised the bundle towards Jack and had encouraging smile on her face.

"You can take her…" Elizabeth said quietly and Jack reached to take the baby carefully in his arms. But first he bent to kiss Elizabeth on her forehead.

"Me brave, little Elizabeth…" The man whispered against it.

Then Jack carefully moved the child on his arms. The man pulled the sheet away from the baby's face and his heart was fully touched when he saw the world's most beautiful, little, red face. The child was like a feather in her father's arms; she was quiet and just moved her little lips against each other. The girl's eyes were tightly closed.

"Me daughter", Jack sputtered and Elizabeth bit her lip as new tears streamed on her cheeks. "Me little daughter…"

"Jack, you'll know what name she will get…" Elizabeth sighed as she tried to calm her emotions and to be able to talk. "Tia knew it, like she knew that this Miss will be our evenstar."

"Aye… Jacqueline Ivy Elisabet Sparrow", Jack mumbled the name, which they had decided together long time ago and he couldn't remove his eyes from the baby. The man was silent long time and swayed the child in his

arms.

Suddenly Jack said playfully: "Thank God, she got yer nose."

Elizabeth laughed and rubbed her aching ribs. "Don't be silly, my dearest! At least I love your nose." Jack laughed too and Elizabeth reached to give a little kiss on Jack's nose like a prove of her words.

"She is so beautiful…" Jack mumbled again as he turned serious. "I can already see meself chasing wooers with a pistol in me hand!"

Elizabeth laughed again as she protected her aching middle body with her hands and said uneasily: "There are still years until she begins to get interested with boys. Don't worry."

"I quess. But she is truly a beauty…" Jack said almost respectfully. Then the man continued: "Hmmh… but what else could she be when ye are her mother." Jack turned to Elizabeth with a grin and bent again towards her.

The woman rolled her eyes and at the same time Jack caressed her lips with his.

"You flatterer…" Elizabeth mumbled and caressed Jack's cheek that was covered with rough beard as the man kissed her gently on her mouth.

The girl in Jack's arms was truly a beauty. It was easy to say, though she had just born. Her face was perfectly formed, her hair was as dark as her father's and brothers'. Night dark eyes were now closed, but when the child opened them, eyes were as deep and expressive as her father's.

"Look how calmly she sleeps…" Elizabeth sighed and leaned her head against Jack's strong shoulder and they looked at their newborn daughter together. "I think she will be a very kind, little lady…"

"Ye think so?" Jack laughed and suddenly the girl opened her eyes and looked at them. Dark, mysterious eyes glanced both of them and then closed again.

"I'm not sure, luv", Jack mumbled and kissed Elizabeth's forehead. The woman glanced at him, but she did say anything, just looked at the miracle that they had done together.

"I'm not sure at all…"

THE END

Written by: Heidi

2007-2008

And I want to mention that I don't own PotC or its characters, but the story and my own characters belong to me.

A/N: Curiosity III coming sometime in the future…


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